


Magic Knights

by AnthroLover



Category: Disney - All Media Types, The Lion Guard (TV), The Lion King (1994)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Anthropomorphic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - No Humans, Animals, Anime/Manga Fusion, Anthropomorphic, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Heroes & Heroines, Magic, Magical Realism, No humans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-13 15:50:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 44,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11763201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnthroLover/pseuds/AnthroLover
Summary: There is much more in the world than the normal eye can catch. There are wonders, but there are also unparalled dangers. And so, the world need someone to keep balance and protect it from these dangers. And this responsability now falls over the backs of some young individuals, who become the next generation of champions.Now, as the forces of evil start to gather together, our new champions see themselves faced with a danger beyond anything that this wolrd might ever seen before. Now is up to them, along with the allies the will make in the way, to stop this evil force and save the world from certain doom.Spin-off of several Disney animal characters into an anthro Universe with elements of anime.





	1. A Night in the Park and a Strange Dream

The night was peaceful and calm into the park. No living soul was on sight as the moon shone brightly over the night sky, casting a ghostly glow over the park. It was peaceful as the night air floated around, lighted by the occasional light post around, casting the glow of its lamp over the ground bellow, granting that it would be sight for anyone who would venture in the park.

However, there were few individuals that would be late that night. Even if the park was big and was one of the most popular places in the city, especially for dates and meetings, it was nearly two hours past midnight now, and the only ones that would be out that late would be, as to say, "less trustable".

So, the park was empty. The banks that were around the place laid silently and empty in the grass field, which was starting to form small droplets of water as the night air met it and it condensed. The big fountain, depicting several water mammals, like dolphins and orcas, laid lifeless, for it was not shooting the waters around it, which caused delight to anyone who saw it. It was always switched off at night, when there was nearly no one around to watch it, so it being kept turned on was only a big waste of energy and, consequently, of money.

So, the park was completely lifeless and completely dessert, being left alone and dark into the stillness of night. There was not a living soul around, so, consequently, there was not a single living soul nearby to see what would happen next.

At the middle of the park, right in front of the fountain, the air suddenly swirled and bent over itself. Some kind of mist formed, as it seemed to have several small sparks around it, as it was a bunch of fireflies. The air twisted and bent even more, as it the space itself was stretching and changing its shape in order to adopt some new kind of format.

After a few moments, the air suddenly rippled, as it a stone had been cast on water, as a single and lonely figure stepped out of the mist, as if he had materialized from thin air.

The figure landed safely on its feet in the ground, and looked all around itself.

There was absolutely no one around. Good, the last thing he needed now was someone seeing him and having to give some kind of explanation.

It was not only the fact that the figure, which was a wolf at his late thirties, maybe entering his middle-years, had appeared out of nowhere as if it was magic. It was also because of the way he was dressed right now.

He was wearing a suit that would made him stand out in a crowd, by the fact that it resembled somewhat a musketeer clothing. Long-legged pants and a ruffian shirt, and completed by a fancy hat in his head with a long feather in it. And he also had a long white cape that floated with the light wind behind himself. His long grey tail waved behind him under the cape, and his bare wolf paws touched the concrete ground beneath him.

All his clothing was white, with some gold and silver trimming, especially in the shoes and the shirt. Actually, the feather that came out of his hat seemed to almost be made of silver! Still, it floated like a regular feather as it was held in the hat by a brooch that resembled a cross. It had a gem on it that seemed to be a diamond, and was enveloped by golden trimming, making it really look like a very fancy brooch.

On his hand, the grey furred wolf was holding a rapier, a sword that was classic of the Musketeers, and it shone its silvery blade as the wolf held it by the golden handle, decorated with what seemed to be small diamonds. It was indeed a fine piece of art, and who looked at it intently, especially at the sharp looking blade, would know that it was not only for show. Indeed, the blade looked to be quite sharp, and it looked like the kind of weapon that could make some serious damage.

The wolf sighed as he looked up "What a night!" he said to himself, sounding like someone who just finished a hard day of work. "I swear I would take vacation if I could." He said as he stretched his arms up his body, letting the sword in his hand glow in the moonlight, right before it disappeared form his hands into a white flash, leaving behind absolutely no traits that it had even existed.

"Well, I better go to sleep now." He said as he started walking away, leaving his hand to his hat. However, before he could touch it, he felt a shiver run up at his spine, as the brooch on his hat started glowing softly.

He blinked as he stopped on his tracks and he looked back, in time to see the mist from which he had just came from starting to form again, as the air and space around it twitched and twisted around itself.

He looked incredulously at the mist that formed, and he blinked.

No.

It was not going to…

Not there.

They would never get outside off…

However, his thoughts were proved wrong, as what he feared had happened. Some creature materialized from the mist and they landed in the ground in front of him. These creatures were by and bulky white mantises, all of them with two sets of forelimbs, one of long arms with dexterous hands and the other ending on scythe-like blades, and they were supported by strong and powerful legs, which somehow remembered the ones of a cricket, certainly powerful for jumping. Their eyes were big and bulbous like the ones of a fly and a long pair of antenna came out of their heads, as their ant-like jaws clicked as they fixated their insectoid eyes in the wolf.

"You can't be serious." The wolf said as the creatures all screeched, raising their arms and blades as they seemed ready to pounce. The wolf could only groan as he took a hand to his chest, and from there, he pulled out another rapier, this one identical to the one he had just dematerialized. And it was right in the moment that one of the insectoid monsters jumped in his direction.

The wolf had to think really fast, but he was able to parry the attack of the scythe of the creature's arm with his blade, and for a moment, they struggled against each other. But it was only before the creature raised its other scythe and brought it down in direction to the wolf. But the wolf was not hit, because he was no longer there.

He had immediately jumped out of the way with amazing speed, and then looked at the creatures that threatened him. There were five of them, and they all looked at him drooling some greenish substance from their mouths and clicking their jaws at him, as if they wanted to make him of their next meal.

The wolf looked at them as he breathed, and he swirled his cape, enveloping himself as if it was a cloth. He remained in there for a few seconds, before getting up and making the cape get away, revealing that he was now surrounded by a lot of rapiers, all of them identical.

The wolf snarled at the creatures as he threw the rapier that was on his hand in direction to the creature that had just attacked him. He hit it square in the chest, making it spurt some black colored, smoking blood. The creature cried out loudly as it flailed its limbs, like a wounded insect.

The wolf, however, didn't felt any sympathy for that creature, as he picked another sword form the ones that were around him and threw it. This one hit the creature right between the eyes. The creature stood in silence as its arms twitched and then, it fell to the ground. Immediately, its body started to dissolve, as if it was fizzing as it disappeared completely, leaving no proof it existed.

In this moment, the other creatures all started to run at an alarming speed in direction to the wolf. But the wolf was not staying behind. Fast as a lightning, he swirled around and picked each of the swords that were sunk in the ground around him and threw them at the creatures.

The first creature was hit by three swords at the chest, and it let out a loud screech as it died, just like its companion before it. The one right behind was hit in the leg and stumbled to the ground, in time to be hit by another sword to the head, perishing too.

The last two cried out as they both jumped high, several feet above the wolf.

The canine looked up as he picked up the swords and threw them in direction to the bugs, which were coming in his direction.

The creatures cried out as the swords passed by them. One of them cried as it was hit on the leg by one of them, and the other, was hit in the chest, in the area of what would be the belly, and in the head, right between the antenna. It died in the way, while the other, though had a damaged leg, still able to cry out as it raised as its scythes and bring they all down in the wolf, who had just caught the last of the swords, and used it to parry the descending blades. A wave of dust raised from the ground as they boomed against each other.

Inside the cloud of dust, the wolf and the mantis-monster fought blade to blade. The wolf swirled and spun as he moved his rapier, trying to hit the creature, and he was able to score some hits into it as gashes were appearing into the creature's body and leaking black blood. The creature cried as it moved its scythes and tried to hit the wolf, which dodged the moves swiftly with a twirl, or simply parred them with his sword before pushing the creature back and lashing back to make a gash appeared on its body.

The creature was clearly losing, and the wolf clearly had the upper hand. But the creature had a few tricks. It opened its maw and spat the green fluid that was dripping from its mouth in the wolf. The canine had to quickly dodge the attack, but some of it hit on his cape, and it started to fume as it was eaten away by the substance, letting out poisonous fumes.

This distracted the wolf for long enough for the creature to use its first set of arms to grab the wolf, pinning his arms to his sides and raising him form the ground. The wolf cried out as he flailed its limbs as tried to attack the creature, but the rapier he had was kicked out of his hand by the creature's leg.

It looked at him with these enormous eyes as it clacked its jaws at him, almost as it was snapping them purposely at his face. The wolf grunted as the acrid smell of the creature's breath hit his face, making him want to throw up. The creature looked at him, as it said "You will never find them."

The wolf stopped for a moment as he looked at the creature. "What?" he said, sounding confuse, but the creature seemed not to notice.

"They will not intervene." It said to him, almost in a mechanical way, as if it had not very much more intelligence to say something else. "You will never find them. They will never be!" the creature said as it raised its scythes in the air, ready to slice the wolf into pieces.

However, the wolf was not going to give the creature this satisfaction. He immediately swung his leg, hitting the creature on the chin with more strength than it would be possible. The creature stumbled back as it let go of the wolf, who landed in the ground swift, and quickly outstretched his arm, materializing yet another rapier on his hand.

The creature barely had time to react or even register what happened, before the wolf assaulted it with a flurry of stabs and slices of his rapier. Each none created a wound that drawn black-colored blood from the creature's body, which flailed its limbs as it screeched, in a blind attempt to hit its assailant.

The wolf gave them four lightning-fast slashes, and once he was done, the four arms of the creature fell to the ground, dissolving into nothingness just like the other creatures. The mantis-like monster looked at the empty spaces, leaking blood, which once had been its arms, and it looked at the wolf, and it was right in the moment that he raised his rapier high in the air, and made one single downward slash.

His blade touched the ground, and for a moment, he and the creature he was fighting stood in there, both in silence and not moving, when the creature suddenly spurted black blood form its body, as it if had been cut clean in half. As it stumbled, its body started to effervesce and, before it hit them ground, the body had already started to solve into nothingness.

The wolf stood in the place he was for a few more seconds, before he finally let out a long sigh, and he finally got up. He looked around, and he saw the swords he had created and threw at the creatures around him, but there was absolutely no sigh of said creatures. Soon, the swords started dissolving themselves into sparks of white light and vanishing as candles going out into a dark room, also disappearing without giving any sighs that they had even existed.

The wolf looked around, and he looked at his own feet, seeing that he was standing into the crater. One small crater that had been created by the creature when it came to him and they clashed. He let a sigh as he knew that this was probably going to raise questions when people found it in the morning.

The wolf then reached out for his hat, and he picked the brooch of diamond in shape of cross that he had, and he held it into his hand, and pointed it right to the crater. The amulet shone white light over the crater, which was created, and then, after a few seconds, the crater was gone, as if it had never even been made.

Once this damage was fixed, the wolf looked around one last time, specially to the place in front of the fountain, where he and the creatures had both come from. It seemed that he was checking to see if no other was going to come out, and it seemed that it was not, for he finally let out a sigh. Then the wolf was enveloped by a white light, and as it vanished, the wolf was no longer wearing his musketeer outfit. Now he wore normal clothes. One blue and white colored T-shirt and long jeans pants. It was clearly still the same wolf, tough, for he had the same grey colored fur and the same long tail and the same caramel-colored eyes.

In his hand, was still being the brooch that he had just taken off his hat, which did not existed anymore. He looked at it as it was still glowing softly, but the glow was steady, and so, the wolf seemed relieved by this, and he passed a hand over the amulet, and once he was done, in its place was now a silvery ring. It had a gemstone in it, possibly a diamond, and it had the same white color that the brooch he had on his hand a few moments ago had, and also, the same kind of glow.

After a few seconds, the glow subsided and disappeared, making what the wolf had in his hands look like a regular ring, which could be bought in any store in the street. Actually, many would thing it to be worthless.

The wolf placed it in his ring-finger, and he let out a sigh. Even if he was relieved that he had taken care of the problem and that now this was definitely solved, he could not avoid the feeling of being disturbed by what had just happened.

They had come across.

They never did it before. They _shouldn't_ do what they just did. They should always avoid being seem unless it was on their own barriers, never one of them had just came across the veil. Even if it was to hunt him down. Even if it was at a time like that, when no one would see. Even if they planned to eliminate anyone who was near and he could possibly witness what had just transpire. They would never simply walk through like that and simply come to _this_ side. The risks were too great, for everyone.

However, they had done it. They had crossed and had come, and they seemed not to hesitate into doing so. And this led the wolf to question himself.

Why?

Why would they take a risk like that only to come after him?

Sure, he had messed with them a lot of times, but he had just done not more than all the others had. Why they would chase him through the veil? What would make them do something so extreme just to eliminate him?

And he remembered what the creature said.

It talked about something… No, someone. It talked about "they". It seemed to know that it was talking about something important, and it also seemed to think that the wolf would know what it was talking about. But the truth was that the wolf had absolutely no idea!

Who were "they"? Why he said they would not "come to be"? What was the meaning of them? It was really talking about someone? Or it was talking about something else? Was it some kind of riddle? Was that even true? Or was it something that the creature decided to say only to confuse him and mock him? What was the true meaning of all of that?!

The wolf groaned as he massaged the space of his muzzle that would pass by the bridge of his nose. He _hated_ to be hanging in the story, and not having a clue of what was going on. What happened tonight had just been another of a series of things that had been happening and which had gotten him really preoccupied. The worst part was having no idea of what was going on, because this way, he had no idea of what to do to take care of the situation.

He let out a heavy sigh as he hung his head and his ears flattened against his skull. Well, maybe there was nothing he could do about the situation as a whole, but one thing: he could continue to do his job, his duty, and keep doing it. Also, he could still investigate what was going on.

There was just something happening. All the strange things that happened. The strange behaviors. The increase in the tax of their activities. There was something going on. Something BIG. Something important. He could just feel it in his bones, in his heart, in the back of his mind, in his very soul.

As the wolf looked up at the full moon, and turned his back to walk away, he knew he had to do it. However, now he had to rest, even because, he had to get ready for the next day. He had to try to sleep at least a few hours before tomorrow. However, he knew that it was not over. And, even as he walked away to call it an end for the night, even if he was going to forget about the situation at least to try to make a good sleep and to keep himself all together and prevent himself from going apart or exploding. He knew that he had to go to the end of this story, to the very bottom to discover just what was the point, what they were plotting and, most important: how to stop it.

He was going to do exactly what he always did:

He was going to find a way.

That was the only thing in his mind as he walked away, leaving behind him a peaceful and quiet park, once again totally silent into the night air. The breeze of the night silently blew softly its coldness over the park. The droplets of water still formed in the grass. The banks still stood silently and unmoving into the dim light that was cast both by the moon and by the light posts. The fountain still in place, without water and without moving as the night around it passed. The park was still as dead and quiet as it had been just ten minutes ago. And anyone who would possibly wander into that place by now, would never be able to guess or even imagine what had just transpired in that park just instants ago.

* * *

_The place was dark, however, it was possible to see. Though everything around was in shades of grey and black and white._

_In this place, one single figure ran._

_He was a lion. He was only a teenager. He had a moderately well build body, with a little musculature on his chest, arms and in his legs, but he was still slender. He wore a white polo T-shirt and long jeans pants, ripped near the ends. His fur was light-gold in color with a lighter color for his muzzle and in the end of his hands and naked paws, and he also had spots in his wrists and ankles. His eyes were light-brown and his nose was maroon-colored, and he had a tuff of red fur on the tip of his tail, and also some on his head, as the beginning of the growing of his mane, and he had whiskers on his muzzle, as it was expected form a feline like him._

_This young lion was running past the ambient around him, not really paying attention. In his face there was a worried expression, as he looked around, to decide which way was best to follow. He quickly opted for one of them, and he kept running._

_That place seemed that it went on forever!_

_He had already made several turns and passed by several hallways and crossroads, and he felt like he was walking inside a maze. Even though he was sure that not a single time he had passed by the same place twice, he was sure that he was walking in circles. It was almost as if the place around him was changing on purpose, as if to confuse him and prevent him from finding the way out._

_He stood in there, standing in the middle of an arid and devastated ambient around himself. It seemed a part of a desert in which he was in, with dead trees standing and also the carcasses of feral animals which had most likely died from thirsty in that place._

_The young lion panted as he looked around, trying to make a direction to which follow now. But it didn't mattered to which side he looked, all of them seemed to continue in direction to an endless desert around him, devoid of light, color, or life of any kind._

_That was when he heard a voice. It was barely louder than a whisper, but he heard it perfectly._

_"This way."_

_His head jerked, as he looked around, and he called out "Who is in there?" But no one answer, but the voice come again "This way."_

_He looked over, and he could pinpoint the place that the sound had come from._

_"This way."_

_The voice continued to call him, and he was drove by an instinct to follow it. He started running in the direction the voice was coming… or… pointing him into… He wasn't even sure why. He just felt like he should follow it._

_He passed by the desert, and soon, he was walking past a long, spiraled hallway, and going in direction to a door. As soon as he opened it, he found himself in the middle of a big room, with several staircases, each one leading to another door._

_The young lion looked around himself, still panting as he looked to all sides to try to make a direction. His answer, once again, came in the shape of the whispering voice. "This way."_

_He jerked his head to his right, form where the voice had come from, and he was able to make it to the third staircase. The voice was still calling out, saying "this way" as if urging him to follow and go, and with certain urgency, as if the time was running short. The young lion heard the voice, and he noticed that it somehow sounded familiar to him. However, he had no time to think about it, for he felt like he should be going._

_He rushed to the staircase, and started climbing into the stairs. They were long, and he arrived to the top panting more than normal. However, he felt no tired in anyway, which he would have found strange in other circumstances, but right now, he had no time to think about it, for he was now standing in front of a big iron door._

_As he stood next to it, he could hear sounds coming from the other side. They seemed to be clashes of weapons, and also primal cries that didn't belonged to anything that the young lion was able to recognize, and there were also… explosions?_

_The young lion took a step back in front of the door. His instincts now conflicted. Part of his instincts told him to go ahead and open the door, and the other part told him to turn around and get away from that door and search for another way. As the lion tried to decide which one of them to follow, he was suddenly called by the voice again._

_"Open the door." It said to him "Before it is too late."_

_The way the voice said it made something click inside of the lion, and then, he quickly raised his hands, grabbed the doorknob and turned it, before pushing the door. It was heavy, so he needed to use the strength of his two arms to push it open, and as soon as he did, he stood in the doorframe, looking at the scene before him._

_He now stood in the middle of a great fields, and form there, he had the view for a great crowd. However, it was not composed by animals. It was composed by a hoard of several strange looking and monstrous creatures, all of which seemed frightening in their own way. And it was not only the fact that they had claws, and jaws, and horns, and blades of all kinds in their bodies. Nor that they looked like nothing that could come out of the natural world. It was the fact that they all had some kind of presence around themselves, a presence that the young lion could feel even from the distance he was from the creatures. It was like they were evil. The lion just felt it. They were so evil that it was like the evil was leaking form them, into some short of aura of pure malice._

_If the creature were very near him, by the way, even if they were looking at him, he would feel scared to death. However, their attention was turned to another creature. This one stood in the middle of them, and it drastically different form the rest of them._

_For beginning, the creature was a wolf, and it was easy to see. It was a normal anthro wolf, standing in two legs in the middle of them. He was clearly normal as he different from the alien and disturbing shapes of the creatures around him, even by the way he was dressed. He was wearing what seemed to be a musketeer outfit, like from the old movies, all white and with a matching hat, and the lion could make out something glowing in the hat. But there was something more that made it different, and it was the aura._

_While the creatures let out some kind of evil that made the young lion feel some kind of fear deep in his heart, the wolf that stood in there was letting out a very different feeling. It was like he was letting out some white light from his body as well as a strange feeling. It was like bravery and power. It made the young lion feel better, as if the wolf was a star shining in the middle of a dark sky, or like a lighthouse casting its glow to others. Anyhow, it was like the wolf was some kind of light that was spreading life and hope in the void and dark all around him. However, even that shine and hope seemed to become dim front to fear and malevolence of the horde of evil creatures that was staring at him._

_Even standing at distance, the lion could see very well as the figure pulled an old looking sword from god-knows-where and held it tightly as it faced the creatures. And then, faster than the eye could follow, it jumped forward._

_The lion just blinked and he saw that the wolf was no longer there. A loud mix of cries and roars made him turn his head in time to see the wolf using the sword to slice out the heads of two of the monsters._

_The lion blinked, not believing that it was possible to move at such speed and with such power._

_The wolf, right after doing it, swung his blade and he cut out a big monster's arm clean off, right before doping the same with its head. However, as soon as this monster was defeated, another three went right to them wolf, all of them swinging their blade-like appendages to the canine._

_The wolf had to quickly spin around and parry them with his blade, and he was able to push all the attackers back. As they advanced against him again, the wolf took out another sword, seemingly from nowhere, and he was now using the two swords to clash with the creatures that threatened him._

_After a while of clash, he finally was able to use the swords to quickly stab each creature in the chest, making them let out primal cries as they feel to the ground._

_However, there was a still a whole horde of creatures all around the wolf, and it seemed that all of them wanted to go after the wolf to avenge their recently demised friends. The wolf was forced to constantly dodge and parry several attacks with his two swords and to think fast to be able to really fight and stay alive._

_The young lion watched amazed as the wolf was able to keep his ground against these monsters. He knew that himself would probably have been killed by now. Many others would have turned around and ran for their lives if they were faced by these creatures. But the wolf, he was able to fight them and to really stand his ground into a fight with them._

_However, he noticed that the wolf was having troubles._

_It seemed that the creatures did not end, and it seemed that for each one he killed, the next was bigger, stronger, and even scarier than the last. All of them were terrifying in their own way, but still, it seemed that each one was somehow worse than the last. The wolf was able to keep up with them, but it was clear that the wolf was starting to have problems._

_The canine had to swing his blades at a fast rate, and most times, the young lion could not even see his movements, such was his speed. However, he was clearly seeing that the creatures that came for the wolf were becoming increasingly hard to slay. Some the wolf could kill with just opne move, but others took his attention and several blows to stop moving. It also did not helped that they seemed to be going for the wolf almost all at the same time._

_The wolf had just dodged the claws of a very big monster and landed on the ground, when a shadow befall him. He looked up surprised, just in time to see a gargantuan monster with a big, hammer-like paw raised and ready to go down on him._

_The wolf had to quickly jump out of the way, as the hammer connected with the ground. And it was good that he did it, for that blow, when connected, made such a force that made the ground crack and exploded, and created a tremor that the young lion could feel form where he was, and which almost knocked him out of his feet._

_He was able to recover in time to see several chucks of the ground floating in the air. And he saw the wolf jumping among them._

_The canine jumped from one to another with speed and agility that would put any Olympic gymnast to shame. And he did all of that while holding onto the sword he had on his hand. As he jumped, the young lion could see him throwing swords in the creatures below. Several swords. From where he was taking all of them out?_

_The creatures screeched as they were hit by the swords, some of them immediately died after, while some of them remained on their feet, seeming wounded, and there was even some that seemed to not even be bothered by the swords._

_The wolf kept jumping among the chucks of stone and earth, while some creatures followed him onto it, jumping into them, or even flying around. They quickly went in the same level as the wolf, and started attacking anew. The wolf had to quickly fight by using swords. The parried their attacks, countered with stabs and slashes, and he threw swords of them, and it was seeming that the wolf had some kind of pocket form where the swords came. The lion wondered what was going to happen if he ran out of swords. He shuttered at the thought._

_The wolf had just cut out one wing of a flying creature, making it screech as it fall back to the ground, when he had to parry and slash back at another creature that came in his direction. As if it was not enough, soon it seemed that the creatures where throwing things at him. They looked like blades, like spikes, like stones, and even fireballs!_

_The wolf was able to dodge and parry the attacks, but he was clearly having difficulties into parrying them all and fighting off the creatures that came at him at the same time. At one given moment, one stream of what seemed to be fire hit him square in the chest, launching him back and making him crash against one of the floating chucks of ground, raising dust and creating a crater._

_"No!" The young lion cried out as the wolf was hit. He barely even knew the wolf, yet, he felt like they were attacking someone who was important to him. He watched as the dust settled, and a white blur passed past the dust, and started jumping again from one chuck to the other. It was the wolf. He didn't seemed to be hurt, however, it was clear that he had lost speed, and his attacks into the creatures and parries seemed to have become even more difficulty, as if he was in great pain, or unfocused. It was clear that he was having problems, and even more when he was hit by another beam of fire, and them by a rock right in the head, which opened a gash in his forehead from which leaked his crimson blood._

_The lion watched as the wolf was starting to be outnumbered and overpowered, when the voice came again, this time, talking normally. "It is too much for him."_

_The lion quickly jerked his head to his left, seeing the source of the voice he had been hearing. The creature on his side was red, but that was all he could make out. The figure that was standing next to him looked as if it was made out red color in the vague shape of an anthropomorphic creature. However, even the species could not be pin-pointed. Yet, it was clearly different from the monsters that were attacking the wolf. And also, looking at the figure, it seemed vaguely familiar to him…_

_"He has been taking on his own for a long time, but this is bigger than anything he ever faced before." Said the figure in a clearly masculine voice. The young lion was sure he knew that voice! "It is too much for him to face on his own." It simply said as it kept looking forward, in the direction the wolf and the creatures were fighting._

_The lion turned his head back in time to see that now there were long tendrils made of darkness, and they all seemed to be trying to get the wolf, in addition to all that was already happening. The wolf dodged and spun around as he landed in each chuck of earth, whoever, he was hit in the back by one of the creature's claws._

_Shock covered his face as his cape was ripped out of his body, and blood gushed to out of the fresh wound on his back. He gritted his teeth and picked the feather on his head, and threw it in the air. The feather, as if having a mind of its own, moved and floated, and pierced the creature as if it was an arrow._

_The creature cried out as it fell, and the feather was already making its way back to the wolf, when it a fireball hit it and instantly burned it, making the feather disintegrate into nothing more than ashes._

_The wolf didn't even had time to react as another creature bit him in the shoulder, making blood leak form the wound. The wolf cried out as the creature moved and threw him up with its jaws. The wolf flew in the air as four fireballs suddenly hit him; one after the other, making the canine be thrown in different directions by the power of each of them._

_The young lion gasped as he saw the wolf being punished like that by the enemies, and he could only watch as the wolf, while still on the air, was grabbed by the leg by one of the tendrils, and swung around._

_The poor unfortunate canine hit one chuck of rock, and then two, and then a third, and finally, he was slammed hard against a fourth, raising dust from it._

_"That is horrible!" said the young lion, finally finding his voice back "Someone has to help him!"_

_"Who you suggest?" asked the red figure by his side, and the young lion looked at him "Maybe my father! He has friends! He is a co-"_

_"Do you really think a police team will be able to help him?" the figure asked, not letting him finish. "Do you think the S.W.A.T will be able to help him fight these things?"_

_The young lion didn't had answer for that. He knew that the figure was right. He knew that even with the whole police force of his city together they would never be able to help the wolf, not against these things._

_He looked over as he could see the wolf trying to get up from the crater that he was in the floating chuck of earth. The canine tried to force himself up, when a shadow formed over him. He could only look up in time to see a gigantic fist, belonging to a huge creature, collide with him. The impact broke the chuck of rock he was in, and propelled him in direction to the earth, making him land with a crash and a big wave of dust._

_The young lion gasped at it, and the figure continued. "He is the only one who can truly fight them, but he can't do that on his own." The young lion looked at it, as it kept looking forward, and continued into a calm pace, "He continued when many others would have lost their hopes and accepted the unavoidable. He is the last line of defense. If he gives up now, then it is all over… for all of us."_

_The young lion looked back, in time to see the cloud of dust settle down as it was surrounded by the horde. The wolf was in the middle of it, his outfit burned and ripped and he looked battered. The canine flinched as he struggled to get up, and he looked over._

_He was looking right in direction to the young lion, right at him. The wolf looked at him, and he screamed something, one single word, but no sound came out of his mouth. In this moment, the creatures all crept closer to him, all seemed to be ready to finishing him off for good._

_"There is nothing to be done?" The young lion asked in desperation, and he turned to the figure by his side "No one can do anything!?"_

_He wanted to help. He wanted to do something to help! He NEEDED to do something! Anything!_

_The figure finally diverged its attention form the fight, and looked at him. "You can."_

_The young lion blinked at the figure. "What!?" he asked in shock. The figure ignored his surprise, and simply turned to him entirely, and said, "You have the power to change it. You have the power to save him, and all the others, laying inside of you."_

_The young lion looked at the figure in front of him. Was it serious? HE could really do something about all of that?_

_"You shall not be alone in this quest. Together, you can change the destiny and the outcome of all of this." The figure said to him "You just need to have the courage to do so." It said as it raised its hand to him. Looking in it, the young lion could see something, a spot of red. Redder than the rest of the creature, and it seemed to glow. It was in the shape of something like a diamond, and the creature said "Do you have courage?... Kion?"_

_The young lion looked at the figure, and he was about to ask how it knew his name, when it kept repeating._

_"Kion…. Kion… KION!"_

_Then suddenly, the lion felt as if the ground beneath him had disappeared, and he cried out as he fell._

* * *

THUD

"OUCH!"

The young lion squirmed as he hit the ground, and he found himself covered by something soft. He was going to rip it with his claws, when he remembered it was his own mattress.

He quickly pulled it out, revealing his furred head as it got up and found himself on his room, right by the side of his bed, from where he had just fallen.

"Kion!" A female voice called in the outside "Breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes! You better be ready till then!"

The lion blinked as he looked around, seeing that he was indeed in his own bedroom, with on the floor, with his mattresses over him and his pillow fallen to the side.

"Uhg… Strange dream…" The lion said as he rubbed his head, where he had hit the ground.

"Kion!" said the female voice again "Are you hearing me? You don't want to be late for the first day of school, do you?"

"Okay, mon!" said the young lion named Kion "I'm coming!" he said as he got up, and he tried to remember what he had just dreamed about.

It was in a strange place, and there was a voice and… there… there was a wolf, right? Ugh, it hurt to try to remember. Still, the young lion knew that he had woke up with his full senses, and his heart was beating far faster than normal.

The dream was possibly something that was either too scary or amazingly awesome, and now he couldn't remember a thing about it.

Dammit! Kion hated these kinds of dreams!


	2. The First Day & The New History Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are a lot of people who live perfectly normal lives. Kion is one of these people. All his life Kion has been all but average, and he lived a fairly normal life. Kion himself does not has great expectations on his own life, despite he is always living it to the fulest that he can, he clearly believes that there is nothign that make him trully special.  
> On his first day of school, it seems that his life will continue to be as normal as it had always been, and nothing out of the ordinary will happen to him. However, with the arrival of a new teacher in the class, Kion may soon find his life taking a very unexpected turn...

Kion yawned as he got up from the floor and walked in direction to the bathroom. He was wearing only a white shirt and his boxers, and he was barelly even minding if someone saw him, after all, he was on his own house, right?

He entered into the bathroom, and he locked the door behind himself, and he quickly was getting ready to take a bath. He winced, and let out a soft moan as the hot water hit his body, soaking his fur. Kion was not a big fan of water, as he was a feline (not that Kion was all in this racial stuff, but he, personally, didn't liked to get wet, specially if the water was cold). Still, he bathed as regularly as anyone else, and he even liked to take hot baths.

He took his time to wash himself, and to use a special shampoo for his fur, which made a lot of foam over his body, and that cleaned every bit of his body, including the ones that he didn't liked anyone else to touch. He also used some special shampoo in separated for the fur that was growing in the top of his head. Kion was very proud of his mane had started to form, and he was taking special care with it.

He was already finished after ten minutes, and he grabbed a towel to dry himself off as he walked out of the shower, lettign out a sigh as the steam from the hot water filled his nose. He got in front of the mirror, and looked at his reflection as he finished drying himself, his fur floofing as he finished.

Kion frowned at his reflection, and grabbed a nearby brush and he started to bush his fur, to try to make it go right. Kion would focus only on the fur of his head and arms, for they were the only one that were going to be expose on his clothes, and he knew that he did not wanted to be seem with his face in a floof like that in public.

Kion finished with his tuff of red fur, taking special care to make sure it was straight and standing on. He wanted everyone to see it. After all, it was the first day of school, and he would like to keep a good impression.

After finished, he took off his toothbrush, and he brushed his teeth. When he was done, he smiled his flashy-white teeth at the mirror, in a sly smile, and he put the towel around his waist, and went out back to his room.

"Breakfast ready in ten minutes, everyone!" His mother voice called underneath, and Kion knew that he should not take very long now. The young lion entered into his room, and closed the door again, and he selected a good set of clothes that would go well with his first day.

He had choosen for a pair with long-legged jeans pants and a set of white T-shirt with a roaring red lion head printed in the front, and the words "WILD BEAST" in the back. It was stylized and it was one of his favorite shirts. He smiled to himself in the mirror, as he applied hairgel into his head fur, to make sure it was going to look cool. He put enough for it to last until he went back home, and he was hoping that it was going to last through the day, and that it was helping making him look cool.

After that was done, Kion finally went out of his bedroom and went to the dinner room.

There were already two lions in there. One was a muscled lion with yellow-golden fur, and a very rich red mane that covered all of his neck and left the tips of his ears sticking out of that. He had ruby eyes and they both were loked in the newspaper as he read it calmly as he was sitting in the table. He was wearing a blue colored police uniform, that left absolutelly no doubt about what was his profession.

Kion walked over, almost jumping over the table to sit on it, and he said, "Hey, dad!" to the lion who was sitting in the table. The older lion smiled, and he looked at his son, and he said, "Good morning, Kion."

"Seems like you finally decided to come down." Said a feminine voice, and Kion looked over his father's shoulder as he looked to the owner of the voice. She was a slender and very beautiful cream-colored lioness, with a lighter cream for her neck, and it probably went down her chest. She ahd teal-colored eyes, and a brown colored nose. The tip of her tail was tan-colored. She was wearing a white social dress, which was very appropriate to her work as accountant, and she was wearing a pink and yellow appron over it, to avoid aky kind of stain in her working clothes.

"Morning, mom." Kion said to the lioness, and his mother s iled at him "Breakfast ready in five minutes. Hope you all enjoy."

"I'm sure I will!" Kion said, and his father could only chuckle. "So, your night was good?" he asked his son, and Kion smiloed back "Yeah, it was nice." For a moment, be thougth about talking about the dream. However, he soon decided that he was far too old to talk about dreams like that. After all, it was not like it was a nightmare or anythin like that. Besides, he barely even remembered the dream, so it made no sense of talking about something that he could barelly even remember, right?

Kion only sighed, and he remained silent, and his father looked at him, and smiled, as he said, "Trying something new with the hair?"

"Yeah!" Kion said, much more anxious, "I want to make it look good, after all, this is just the start of my BIG mane!" The young lion said, making his father chuckle slightly. He remembered when _he_ was already this excited to have his own mane. Of course, this was years ago, and he was much more mature now. As well as Kion himself was going to get. He knew that deep inside all lions had already passed by this phase.

Still, this was not an excuse for him not to play a little with his son.

"If your mane grow more than this, you mean." The older lion said, and the younger one looked at him "Say _what_ now?" he asked, and the older lion smirked behinnd his journal as he continued teasing the young one.

"It is possible that this is all the mane you are going to get and that it don't grow anymore." He said, as if he was saying something rather casual.

"What!?" Kion said, and he quickly figured out that it was to mess with him. It HAD to be to mess with him! "That is not true!" he said, a little loudly, and his mother said, "Kion, not so loud, please."

His father, however, was not letting it go, and he said, "I already saw it happen. Sometimes the mane starts to grow but it stops and it don't grow anymore. It already happened a little around my family. It happened to me great-great uncle, and also to a distant cousin of mine. There is some cases in our family. I had luck it didn't happened to me. But in your case... how knows?" He was talking that as if it was trully something very casual, but Kion was not taking it like that.

"It is not true." He said, more controlled, but it was clear on his face that he was not thinking it to be funny. His father, however, only continued, and he said, "Well, anyway, I think you should get prepared in case your mane don't grow more than this. It is not hard to live with it, actually, I heard some stories about lions who live very well with just part of their manes. They even give suggestions about looks to people like them."

"Mom!" Kion whined, asking for his mother for support. She looked at her husband, and said, "Simba, stop tormenting our son."

Simba, the big lion, chuckled at his wife, and he said, "Come on, Nala, I'm just messing with him a little."

Nala looked at her husband, and she said, "Well, I don't think that Kion finds it funny, so you better stop."

"Thank you!" Kion said, and Simba chuckled at his son, as he continued to read the newspaper, and there was no more talk. At lest, for thirty seconds, until another voice came "Good morning." And it was a female's voice, and everybody already knew who it was.

"Hi, Kiara." Kion said over his shoulder to the lioness that was coming. She was, in one word, beautiful. For other lions who were not Kion, at least. She was slender, very beautiful, and she had a very attractive body (again, to other lions who were not Kion). Her fur was light peachy in color, and she had a light beige in her neck and undermuzzle, and it surelly went down her chest and belly. Her nose was just like Nala's, and her eyes were ruby colored. She was wearing blue colored blouse and a long feminine, teal blue pants, and she was carrying a pink colored bag over her shoulder, as she was getting ready to go to school too.

"Hi, sweety!" said Simba to the lioness, who blushed a little "Come one, dad, I'm not six anymore." She said, and it was true. She was actually almost eighteen now, still, she knew, as well as Kion, that she was always going to be their father's little girl.

"And, how is my favorite little brother?" She said, petting Kion's head, making the younger lion wince and try to get away from her hand "Hey, stop that!" he said, blushing slightly "You will mess the mane!" he said, making sure that his fur was still straight, and Kiara only chuckled in answer, as did their father. Yeah, it seemed that the strange pleasure for tormenting the younger member of the family was somehow genetic. Sure, that was just what Kion needed, two members of his family dedicated to make him suffer.

"Breakfast is ready!" Nala announced as she brouhgt the food to the table, eggs, bacon, toast and coffe. Kion served himself of two big slabs of bacon, and also some toasts with butter. His father, of course, got coffe and the eggs and bacon, as he always did. Kiara countended herself with some toasts and coffe. Nala served herself of the same, and they all ate calmly in the table.

Of course, this was the perfect chance for everyone to talk, and this, time, without Kion being target to the fun of his family. Much to his relief.

"Nice to hear that everything is going well in school." Said Simba to his daughter, and Kiara smiled, "Yeah, Mr. Gooner said I can get good scholarship to the faculty if I keep my grades like that. Oh, and I'm also hoping that things go as good in the debate team and in the academic team as they did last year. Maybe we can win another prize this year."

Kion would have groaned loudly if it weren't for the rest of his family in the table. Like Kiara was going to cease be the perfect older sister only because the school had not started yet. Yeah, it was a lot of teams and of course, there was her perfect grades, which put her among the best students in the school.

Kion was happy for having grades good enough only for him to pass to the next year. Still, he had his own affair of good grades, but sure, none of that was near as good as "Miss Perfection" awesome grades, and the fact that she could have virtually any faculty she wanted in the state and that everyone in school loved her.

Yeah, Kion could very well live if his sister was not as popular and everybody didn't had all eyes to her all the time. Still, there was simply nothing that he could do about it, so, he could only sigh to himself, and resume eating his food.

"So, would you two like a little ride to school?" Simba offered to his family. Kion and Kiara shared a look. It was not bad to receive a little ride in a police car to school, as it let people know that your father is a cop, and a influent one. It helped to your moral, and it made somehow better, for people usually don't mess with you.

Kion had the suspicious that his father offered it more to Kiara, for, for him being a cop, he could use this to let any guy who tried to get near Kiara to behave and to know that he could make things somehow difficult to them if they messed with his daughter. It had been working for several years now, and it seemed that Simba was still planning to keep the plan in motion.

"Nah, I'll take the bus." Kion said, and Kiara also said, "Thanks dad, but there is no need."

"So, you two will get the bus?" Simba asked, taking a sip of his coffe. Kiara then said, "Well, actually, Kovu will give me a ride."

Kion suddenly felt a great urge to leave the room and rush to the outside as fast as he could.

Yeah, he knew Kovu pretty well as did their father and mother. He was Kiara's boyfriend, and he was, at least in their father's oppinion, the only thing about her life that was far from perfect.

Maybe it had something to do to the fact that Kovu never really attended to school, and didn't had a degree or a stable job. Maybe it had also to do with the fact that Kovu was a guy from the streets, and he had already even been arrested a few times.

The point was, their father didn't really approved the fact that Kiara was dating him, and it was clear by his expression when she said it, byt the slightly frown of his face as he heard Kovu's name, and by the reprobbing expression that he had.

He seemed even about to say something, but a look from Nala was enough to make him stay quiet. She was a little more open-minded than her husband, and she was more willing to give Kovu a chance. And she also seemed willing to try to make her husband to do the same, as she had been doing for a few months now, the time that Kovu and Kiara had been dating.

"Well... this is... very... nice... of him." Simba said, making a very clear effort to say that without letting out some remark about Kovu. It was clear that he was making effort, still, it was clearly a progress, and it seemed to make Kiara satisfied.

Kion actually wasn't very sure about how he felt about Kovu. For one side, the guy looked rather cool and secure of himself. However, there was the constant feeling that the guy could bring trouble. Maybe it was something hat he had gained from all the things that their father said about the rebbelious lion when he first started to date his sister, and it was persisting until now.

Kion himself always thought that Kiara was going to date one of the perfect guys from school. It made sense, a perfect girl would like to date a perfect guy, but Kiara had chosen Kovu, who was, on a way, a total opposite of that. Kion didn't understood it quite well, until he heard his mother saying that he was her "bad boy", and that every girl had one in at least one stage of life. It made sense, Kion had already noticed that guys with cool attitude and the rebelious way always had the eyes of most girls. He even wondered if he should try to be one, however, the way that his father clearly dissaproved Kovu made him think twice, and end up concluding that it might not be the best of the ideas.

The breakfast went on without further insides, when the sound of a strong engine could be heard in the outside. It sounded like a motorbike. Kiara smiled, as she said, "Oh, that's Kovu!" And she quickly ate the last bite of her toast and drank down the rest of the coffe, and she got up to go out "I gotta go now, I'll be back later."

"Kiara!" Simba called as she was going in direction to the door, and all eyes turned to him. Including the eyes of his wife, which told him that he'd better chose very well his next words. After a trade of glances with Nala, Simba looked at his daughter, and forced himself to smile, and he said, "Don't forget the helmet."

She smiled at her father, and said, "I won't I promise, love you, bye." And she left, leaving the three other lions behind. Simba sighed as he almsot slumped on his chair, and Nala patted his shoulder. "That was very good, dear. I see we all are improving in this."

"Hmmhmm." Simba simply said as he smiled at his wife. The sound of the motor could still be heard outside. After around ten seconds, Simba got up from his seat and rushed to the window, flung it open, adn he stuck his head outside as he screamed. "You better be careful with my daughter! Are you hearing me!? I know where you live!"

Kion and Nala shared a look, and they both sighed. Well, he was still being him, however, there was no doubt that, compared to what things he been in the first days, that was definitelly a progress. Though it was clear that there was still being a long way to go. Nala looked at her son, and asked ,"Kion, shouldn't you be going to school too?"

"Huh?" Kion said, and he looked at the clock, and he saw that he was almost late now!

"Oh, right!" he said as he shoved the rest of the food in his mouth and chewed madly, and he gulped it all down with a huge glass of juice. All of that under his mother watchful eye, and hearing the sound of his father sighing after Kiara had left in the motorbike with Kovu, the boy who he still disapproved, even after almost one year.

Kion finished rather quickly, almost getting the food stuck on his throat, but he managed to swallow it all with a great gulp and sigh. Aftr a few seconds, he also let out a belch, before he could hold it.

"Kion Prideland!" His mother said, using his full name, and Kion only said, "Sorry." Before grabbing his back and rushing to the door, saying "Bye, mom! Bye, dad! Love you!" and he barelly waited for the answer as he left running, leaving both lion nad lioness in the room, and after a few moments, Simba chuckled slightly at his son "He is just like me when I was his age. Always in a hurry." He sat back, now able to relax a little more, and he said, "I have a feeling that this boy is still going to be doing something big." And he took another cup of coffe, while his wife could not help but chuckle and shake her head.

Indeed, Kion was very much like his father at his age.

* * *

Kion needed to rush to get the bus, and he almost lost it by very little, and he quickly found his seat into the bus, passing by several other animals, of all species, who were very much all species possible. There were as much kinds of anthros as there were of feral animals. There was not only mammals like Kion, and like wolves, and ursines and rodents. There was also reptiles, like snakes and crocs and iguanas, and there was birds, like hawks, pidgeons and seagulls and many others. There was even sharks and also sea mammals, like dolphins and orcas.

Strangelly, there was no insectoid anthos, which led the scientists to have many debats and especulation about the reason why the insects didn't developed their anthropomorfic branche of evolution like other creautres. Kion, however, did not bothered very much by this,and also didn't seemed most of people. Some simply supposed that this was like things went, and there it was not very use to bother about it. There were actually some who were glad for being this way. There were a lot of people who didn't really liked insects...

After alsmot ten minutes of bus, they finallty arrived in the final point, the point where Kion was going to drop to go to school.

Kion studied into the W.D. High. It was one great campus, and probably the biggest into the city, and the best school, also. Proof of it was that that his parents were very insistent that he studied in there, for they claimed it was "good for his future", as well as his sister herself studied in there too.

Well, the place probably was really good, because the prices were really high. However, Kion was glad that he was able to study in there. It was big, had a lot of options of classes, and also many clubs, which Kion was member of nearly none. He was not a great studious guy like his sister, and he was not the kind that liked to enter into thse clubs just to add things to his schoolar historic, and he was not the kind that had grades that were good enough for grant other clubs to want him to join.

Still, Kion had his own qualities, and a few clubs of sport had already invited him to join. Though he was not sure if he was really good, for he only had regular grades in P.E. and he was not really very good into many sports, as he usually was not the first who was chosen. Kion was never sure if he _should_ enter in a club, anyway, he already didn't had much time with all the works he had from school and he would have no time to spend with his friends. Still, he was always considering.

Kion looked around as he saw all the other animals getting down from more busses that were comoing from all town. The school was expensive, still, it was the best of the city, and there was a lot of students in there, and from all over the town. There wasa big mass of mammals, reptiles, birds and sea creatures walking all around the place, some talking to each other, being friends, and others on their own. There were groups everywhere, most of them formed by people who were alike, if not in species or appearence, than that had common interests and were of the same clubs.

Kion was now scanning the great mass of animals, in search of the group that _he_ was going to join, and it was not too long before he found it.

Kion smiled, and he cried out "Hey, guys!" as he waved his hand and ran in their direction, avoiding to bump in anyone of his way.

The group, who was all together, turned to see the familiar lion running to them, and all of them smiled as one of the waved back. "Hey, Kion!" said the young male. It was a honey badger, with blue (believe it or not) fur on his body, and who had white spikes that crowned his head and his back and the sides of his arms. He had lighter blue on his face, and he had big buckeld teeth on his mouth, which stood out as he was smiling at the coming lion.

Kion soon arrived, and he said, "Hey, Bunga." As he bumped hands with the honey badger, with their own particular compliment, and Bunga, the blue honey badger smiled as he saw his good friend there with him.

Kion also looked at the rest of his friends. The first of them was a girl. She was a cheetah, with yellow fur on her body, and with brown spots on her back, which were hidden by the green blouse that she wore, which matched her long pants. Her neck and the around of her muzzle were white, and she had fern green eyes. This one was Fuli, one of the few girls that Kion actually knew, and she was the kind of girl that could make many ohter men feel intimidated, both by her bravery as for her prowness that showed often in sports. She was the tipical strong and determined girl, and sometime, even Kion and the rest of his friends had trouble to catch up with her. She did, however, had a very attractive figure, with a slender body and curved hips that made many guys around look and drool at her. Kion himself even noticed it a few times, but thinking over his friend like that was very much the same as thinking so of his sister, and it made him have shivers over himself.

Next to her, was a shorter being, even shorter than Bunga. He was a bird, an egret, to be more precise. He had white feathers in his head, but he had a big topknot on his head with yellow feathers ending into into tips. His eyes were deep blue, and were hidden behind a pair of half-moon glasses, which reminded Kion of one pair that his grandmother used. He was wearing a brown colored jacket over his body, and his arms were also white feathered, but his forearms and hands were yellow. Another curious fact, unlike their feral counterparts, the avian anthros lacked wings, and thus, they were unable to fly. It semeed that they had to lose it in order to have the ability to manipulate tools with dexterous hands. He also wore long pants of khaki color, which hid away his thin legs, but let show his taloned feet, which were stripped of black and orange. He was carrying some books in his arms, which were a more than clear signal than he wa a studious guy, if you let yourself be led by the stereotips.

Finally, the last one of his friends was the kind of guy that you could not miss in a crowd, even if it was a big one. Because his friend too was a big guy. He was a hippo, he was taller than any of his other friends and than Kion, and he was... how ot say that... big. He had dark-grey skin on his body, but the skin on his lower muzzle and that went down his neck and presumidle down his chest and belly. He had blue eyes. He was wearing a big set of clothing, fitting for his big size. He was dressed in blue colored T-shirt and big jeans pants, which had a small hole in the back that let his small tail out, with the tuff of black fur in the tip.

"Hey, Kion." Said Fuli, the cheetah, and Kion comlimented her by bumping fists, and he turned to the egret "Hey, Ono! How was summer?"

"Oh, very nice." Said the egret to his feline friend. "The trip to the south was very nice, and I attended to some really interesting lectures about social interaction into different branches of anthro species. It was really fascinating."

Yeah, that was Ono, th exact studious guy he appeared to be when you looked at him from far. He was always spending time in the library when he could and he was always the one that Kion or his friends searched for support when they were in need for a little help with their grades.

Finally, Kion turned to his last friend, and he said, "Hey, Beshte, nice seeing you again."

"In fact, very good." Said the hippopotamus to his friend, and that was all that Kion needed to get back to his friends. They made quite a interesting group, and Kion was very happy that he got friends like that. Bunga was really fun to be around, very spirited, and Fuli was the girl that you would like to have on your side in any fight. Ono was the smartest guy Kion had knew in a long while, and Beshte, the hippo was a very handful guy if you needed a _really_ strong arm, however, the hippo was very polite and calm, and he was the kind of guy you liked to have around.

They made quite a very interesting group, and Kion wouldn't wish any other way. It was common that people who were from the same species usually gathered together more commonly, and turned into friends. Ono said that it was a natural reaction, activated by instinct, that led people to search for the ones who were like them and gather together. Kion only knew that he always liked to hangout with everybody. He liked to go around with guys from all species since he was little, and he was very happy that he got himself a nice group like that.

"So, everybody anxious for the new year into school?" Bunga asked, sounding to be excited about it, and Kion said, "For me it is still the very same school, with some new teachers, but not much more than that."

"Oh, come on!" said Bunga to his friend, "It is a whole new phase! Full of whole new promises! Don't tell me that you are not even a little thrilled?"

Kion could only chuckle, and Fuli said, "I'm going to stay in the athletics team."

"Well, that is not surprising." Kion said, gently punching her arm, and she smiled at him, "I'm also helping evaluate the new canditates in the auctions for new members. After all, I'm a senior member." She said with pride. Yeah, Fuli was the kind that was good in sports, specially races. There was _no one_ who could beat her into the short distance ones.

"I'll be part of the chess and informatic groups this year." Said Ono to his friends, and he added, "I also plan to enter into the academic team, and I'll also be the helper in the library. It will help raise my extra-class fills."

Yeah, that was Ono, the smart-pants guy who alwasy was searching for study in his extra time. Kion remembred that, when he first knew Ono, the guy was only interested into studing. It took his interference and a lot of argument to convince him to let it alone for a moment and go out ot have fun. It seemed to have been good to him in more ways than one. Ono said that his grades increased slightly since that, it seemed that relaxing occasionally and giving his mind a rest helped to raise his efficience when he got back to work. He was also saying that he had read some things about it since that day, and from that day on, he went out with his friedns regularly. However, Kion was alsmot completelly sure that the egret was still prefering studies and books than hang outs and parties. It was just who he was, and Kion knew that he couldn't and he shouldn't try to change that.

"Yeah, I don't expect less from you." Said Fuli, and Ono couldn't help but agree, and Kion turned to his big hippo friend, and asked him, "And you, Beshte? Will contijnue in that 'high class club'?"

"It is a club to learn correct etiquete and is also for learning the classic way of things." Said the hippo with a smile, and Bunga say "You mean, in the time of our grandparents?"

"It was a better time." Beshte said, "People were more polite and there was a little more respect. I have been in there for a long time, and I have learned a lot from it."

"Yeah, we can notice." Said Fuli, and they all laughed, and Beshte added, "I think I'll also try the debate team this year, it seems very good, and also, I'll be part of the choir. I have been training with my voice in the past summer, and I think I have improved greatly."

"Well, I'll be part of the gamer clubs!" Bunga said, before anyone could ask him, and his friends looked at him, and Ono asked "We have this club?"

"We will have as soon as I create it!" Said Bunga, souding to be very hypped over it. "I'll be the president, the vice-president and the treasurer! We will talk about all kinds of games, and we will research new games and we will play them all day!"

His friends all shared a look, and Ono was the first to talk "Bunga, honestly, and with all respect, I don't think that the school department will cooperate with this project of yours."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Bunga to him, "It will be a club like any other, and we will have meetings and special occasions just like other clubs, and we are going to play all kinds of great games and we will discuss them for hours! It will be the start ot a new generation into the school, to which the young gamers of ths school will finally be able to be with their equals and to do what they really need to do and know for life into this school!"

The way Bunga talked, it was like he beleived that learnign to play video games was more important than any other thing that you could possibly learn into the scholl. This of course, lead his friends to all look among themselves, and Ono said, "Well, if I were you, I would not hold my breath to wait them to approve your idea."

"Oh, como on guys! Of course they will! I mean, how can life be fun without games?" Bunga said, and everybody laughed at that, and after a while, the attention turned back to Kion, as Fuli asked, "So, Kion, any new activities you plan to do?"

Kion looked at her, and thought a little. He then said, "Well, I think I'll keep trying to pass a year." He said it rather simply, and Ono quickly said, "Don't you plan to join any club?"

Kion shrugged, and he said, "I'm really not sure if I should enter one."

"Kion, many researches and many professionals in all areas agree that having some kind of extra-class activity, like a club or a study group, greatly increases the credit in education and enhances the chances of a promising future to someone." Said Ono, and Kion could only roll his eyes, that was Ono being Ono, always semeed to be ready to encourage people to be better, much like his sister made most of her free time. Kion could swear that he was almost as annoying at it like she was.

"What about the clubs that wanted you to join?" Asked Beshte, and Kion looked at him, shrugging again "I'm not sure if I want to join any. I'm not sure if any of them interests me."

"You could try the sports team." Fuli suggested, "I'm sure that they could use a guy like you."

"We in the Social Club are always searching for new members." Offered Beshte, and even Bunga said, "If you want, you can be the first and senior member of the Gamers Club!" He sounded as if it was real honor, and maybe it was, in Bunga's eyes. Kion could only sigh, as he knew that everybody seemed to be worried over these kinds of thing when it came to him. His family was on him for him to get better, and so were his friends.

Well, at least Kion was glad that they seemed to be worried at him, however, he only wished that they didn't worried so much. Of course, this did not stopped Kion of enjoying the company of his friends, and them of talking about so much other things that did not directly involved the clubs that they could or could not join.

"Hey, did you guys knew that ther is going to be a new history teacher?" Said Ono after a while of talk, and this caught the groups attention.

"Really?" Asked Bunga "What happened to Mrs. Patterson?"

"She quit the job." Said Ono "Something to do with the incident of the cream bomb in her office." He finished, and he, like the rest of the group, had all their eyes turned to Bunga.

The honey badger looked back at his friends, who all looked at him, and he said, "It was an accident, okay?" And he looked away, saying to himself "You make one little thing and everybody criticizes you."

Indeed, Bunga was the responsible for the "cream bomb", and all its implications. Sure, there was absolutelly no direct proof that he was the responsible, but this did not prevent anyone of knowing that Bunga was the one who did it. The badger claimed it had been an accident, though many highly questionated how exploding a bomb made of pure whipped cream into the room of a teacher could have been an accident.

Bunga was in trouble for that of course, and he only wasn't in more trouble due to it being almost the end of the year, and the grades having already been given. Yet, this did not stopped the old goat who was their teacher to demand for Bunga to be expelled from school, and that was very close to happen, but, once again, the honey badger gave show that he had some kind of luck that seemed to have been enhirited from his adoptive family, along with his carefree and slightly dumb nature. He escaped with a huge warning, and a lot of things to do back on his home.

Sure, it seemed that Mrs. Patterson had kept her word when she was demanding Bunga's expulsion last year: "That little trouble maker is still going to destroy this school! And I don't plan to stay here to end up crushed by the debris! Or he leaves this school or I will!"

Well, it seemed that, since Bunga didn't left the school, she opted to fullfil her promise. Well, not that anyone was actually complaining, it seemed that she wasn't actually very dear among the students, some actually seemed to be cheering for she having left, according to what Ono had said to his friends. Even the ones in the group were somehow happy that she was gone. She never was the dearest among them too, even Beshte, who was usually understanding with everyone and totally respectful, now had to make a little effort to actually say that he hoped she would be okay. The truth was that sometimes it seemed that not even the other teachers liked having her around.

This even made Kion wonder if the principal had gave up expelling Bunga only to make her quit her job...

Of course, after that, it had to be brought the subject that soon would be in everyone's minds.

"So, who is going to be the new teacher?" Asked Fuli, as she walked near her friends, and Ono said, "I heard a little about him."

"Oh, so it is a guy?" asked Bunga, and Ono said, "Yes, by what they told me. It seems that he has just moved to here from another town, and he just got a job. I heard that he has great refferences from his previous employers, and that he is very good in what he does. I heard that he has a degree from Princeton."

"Wow, the guy must be a brain." Said Kion, and Beshte said, "I look forward to knowing him." He was polite as always, and Bunga said, "Do you think the guy is good to give grades if we ask?"

This made his friends laugh, yeah, good to see that almost being expelled had changed absolutelly nothing about Bunga, and that he continued to be the same goofball that he always was and who everyone simply loved. Of course, there were more questions about this new teacher, and Ono was glad to answer.

"I don't know too much about him, either, but I know that he came from another city, which one, I was unable to get, sorry. Also, I know that he is around our parents age. I don't know his species though, but they said something about him being a canine."

"A canine? What kind? Fox? Hound? Doberman? Jackal?" Aked Beshte, and Bunga whispered to Kion "Lets just hope he is not an hyena, right?" And the lion was able to chuckle at it, and Fuli just looked at their periods, which they were given this morning when they entered into th building, and she said, "Well, boys, it seems that you will find out soon enough. He is your first teacher of today."

Kion and Bunga looked at her, and checked their times, and they saw that Fuli was right. Indeed, History was just their first grade, along with Ono's, it seemd that they would be the first ones to know before hand this new teacher.

* * *

Later on, Kion, Bunga and Ono were on the classroom, along with several other animals of all kinds. They ahd choosen dasks close to each other, so they would be able to chat a little more in the time they had before the teacher entered into the room.

"You don't think he is an hyena, do you?" Asked Bunga, and Ono said, "Well, we really don't have way of telling."

"I just hope he don't start picking on us right on the first day." Said Bunga, and Ono Kion said, "Well, maybe he doesn't, if we don't give him reason to." And Kion said, "Unless he has talken with Mrs. Patterson before she left."

Okay, _now_ Bunga _really_ seemed to be worried. Actually, he seemde about to start to panic. But he had not the chance, once in that time, the bell rang, signaling everyone to go to their classes. Bunga looked panicked among his friends, and he was about to say something, when suddenly, in the same moment that the bell stopped to ring, one older voice said, "Goor morning, class!" As the door was locked "Good morning and welcome!"

Bunga yelped, and he almost jumped out of his spikes as he suddenly was sitting upright into his chair, slightly shaking as he gritted his teeth and queeze his desk with his fingers. Ono shook his head as he, along with Kion, lauhged a little. Kion sat upright too, as he imagined if Bunga was really taking it all serious that Mrs. Patterson had really bad-mouthed him to the new teacher, and now he had a big target on his forehead, chest and back, all over him, actually, and he could be attacked at any moment.

He was probably going to be nervous during all the rest of the class until he convinced himself that the teacher would not target him.

Kion looked forward, to see the new teacher, and he saw the canine walking to the middle of the room, behind his own desk, his back turned to the class, as he started to write into the blackboard, and soon, after he was done, he turned to the class. In the blackboard, it was written: "Johnathan W. Howler".

"Good morning, class." Said the new teacher, and he stood there and looked at everyone "As some of you might know, Mrs. Patterson, your previous teacher, recently left her job. I'm your new teacher, Mr. John Howler. You may call me Mr. Howler or simply 'teacher' if you prefer."

Kion took a good look in this new teacher, along with the others in the class. Indeed, he was a canine, just like Ono had said. More preciselly, he was a wolf. He had light-grey fur and caramel-colored eyes, which darted across the room as he looked at his new students. He was wearing some brown colored clothes, as his furred, naked paws touched the ground and his busy tail rested behind him. His ears were perked and moving, as if he was trying to pick up any snicker or any people whipering across the room.

Kion looked at him casually for a few moments, but them, his eyes widened, as an image flashed in his mind.

He saw that same wolf, wearing a white musketeer clothing, with a white hat with a silver feather and a glowing brooch in it, and holding a silvery sword. Fighting a horde with all kinds of monsters.

Kion blinked as he looked at that wolf, the same wolf who was fighting monsters... Wasn't he? In his dream...

_No.._. Kion thought to himself _No way. This is impossible._

Kion didn't noticed that he was staring strange at the wolf, until Ono slihgtly kicked him, and this made Kion snap out of it, and them, he noticed that the teacher was also looking at him. The wolf had his ears perked, and his eyes fixated into the direction Kion was in.

There was a lot of students into that area, including Bunga, who was sitting just one desk in front of him, yet, Kion had the feeling that the wolf was looking at him, and only at him. Kion almost felt exposed, as if the wolf was trying to see through him. It sent shivers up his spine. It only lasted around three seconds, though, for the wolf said, "Well, I guess it will be interesting being the teacher of a big class. I'm more used to small classes, so I hope you can be understanding if I take sometime to get adapted. I guess this will be interesting to all of us." He finished, offering the class a smile.

"So, now lets see if everyone of the list is here." He said as he sat down, and started to call names, passing by all the alphabet as he called each student, who answered by raising a hand and saying "here" or "present". The calling went for a while, with Bunga slightly saking as his name was called, and Ono eagerly answering, to make his presence known.

"Percivald."

"Here!"

"Portland."

"Here!"

"Prideland."

"Here!" Kion said, raising his paw, and once again, the wolf raised his eyes to look at him, and once again, Kion had that feeling like the wolf was evaluating him, even if it lasted only one second more than when he looked at each other student.

Kion could almost have the feeling like the wolf was eyeing him for some reason...

Kion didn't knew what was it, but he felt something about the wolf. It was not wrong but, it was different. It made him feel strange. And the feeling he had that the wolf was paying a little too much attention to him gave him creeps. But... it was not in the usual way, in which you feel for someone who is undressing you with the eyes.

It was much more than that. It was like the wolf was seeing _inside_ him. Like he was evaluating him. Like he was looking inside his soul. As if he was some kind of judge from a higher tribunal, and was going to see if he was going up or down.

Yet, it gave creeps to Kion, but yet, it was a kind of creep that... Danmit! It ws so hard to describe. Maybe there was even not a true way to describe.

As if it was not confusing enough, there was also the fact that he recognized the wolf. And it was not in a conventional way. Kion was pretty sure that this was not normal. Still, it felt like it was exactly what had happened.

Finally, there was the way that the wolf semmed to have gotten interest on him. This only added another item for the list of Kion's worries.

Soon after the calling was finished, the wolf soon started the class, and the rest of it went by without further incidents. Well, save for one moment in which he called for Bunga's name, and the nohey badge answered by saying "She lied! I didn't did any of it!"

This led all people in there to look at him, before the wolf explained that he only wanted Bunga to answer him one single question.

This of course, made the honeybadger blush maddly as he knew he had done a silly thing, and he answered as quickly as he could and he sat back on his desk, seeming to want to sink in the ground and never be seen again.

Well, it seemed that his worries of Mrs. Patterson had told the new teacher bad things about him was not as valid as he thougtht, and this made him relax a little, but not very much. The rest of the class then _trully_ did passed without incidents, and after a while the bell rang again, signalling the end of history period and the start of the next.

Soon all the students were getting their stuff back in their bags, and starting to head to their next period, as Mr. Howler said, "You may continue to read chapter 10 at home, and we will discuss it in the next class. If anyone has doubts, I'll be in my office during the lunch break and after the class until 3 p.m."

Soon everybody was leaving, Ono, Bunga and Kion left last.

"Mr. Howler, it is a true honor to have you in our school." Said the egret to the wolf, who smiled and thanked for the compliment. "Thank you, Mr. Orvald. Well, I heard very well of you from the other teachers. I hope you go just as well in my classes."

"I will sir." He said, and he soon was leaving, and he looked at the other two. "Gulley and Prideland, right?" He said, looking at them both. "I heard a few things about the two of you."

This made the two anmals nervous, for different reasons. Soon the wolf smiled "Well, I hope we get along fine. You better hurry up, or else you might be late for your next period."

The two animals nodded, and as they left, Kion heard, "Prideland." He stopped, and looked back, as Bunga walked away, and the wolf was once again looking at him, and Kion had again that feeling that the wolf was looking at his very soul.

"You seem like a very promising boy." He said, looking at Kion straight in the eyes, and Kion felt something. Again, it was hard to describe, but there was a feeling of something familiar. Like... like in his dream... It was something like that... right?

The wolf looked at him for a while, and he sighed, and said, "Well, I'll keep an eye for you." He said, and he finally smiled at the Lion "You have potential,you know? I can _feel_ it." And he looked at Kion in the eyes once more. "It is up to you if you will use it or if you will let go."

Kion looked at him, as for a brief moment, the wolf's smile diminished, and he said to the lion, "However, I must warm you, this kind of potential brings out troubles, if you choose to use it."

"If you choose to do so, you will bring to yourself responsabilities, and you might bring troubles to yourself and even to the ones who are near you."

This made Kion stare at the wolf, and the canine simply looked at him, his expression serious, and he said to Kion, in a very calm tone "However, by taking this potential, you might do a great good to the world, and help a lot of people, but it will come at a great personal cost to yourself."

The wolf looked him dead in the eyes, and he said, "Then, you might ask yourself, Kion Prideland." He looked deep into Kion's eyes, almst as if he could reach deep inside of him to see the truth, as he made the question "Are you willing to reach this potential?"

Kion blinked as he looked at the wolf, wondering what he was talking about. Their staring contest lasted for a few seconds, before the wolf talked again "You must think very well over it, before you decide, because once you have decided, there is going to be no turning back."

Right after that, the wolf smiled again, a very kind smile, that made Kion relax, and he said, "You better hurry up, your next teacher will be on the class in a few minutes."

"Huh?" Kion said, as if he had snapped out of a strange stupor as he fianlly remembred of the signal that had just rang. And he was already rushing to the next class, leaving behind the wolf, who still looked at Kion as he was walking away.

Kion wasn't sure of what had just happened. But he knew that it was important, at least to the wolf. Also, he felt that it, somehow, was important to him too. He had this feeling in his guts that told him that, but he didn't knew how that talk could have been important.

As he rushed for his next class, he could not help but wonder that this first day of school had started in a strange and, rather interesting way...


	3. Freaky Events at the Mall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an interesting talk with Mr. Howler, Kion goes to met his firends, and after school, they all go to their favored mall of choice.
> 
> Little does Kion know that he is about to dive heard first at something that he never imagined...

The rest of the day after that incident passed rather normally. After the History class, Kion and Bunga had math. Ono had another class, so they were separated for the time being. However, they met again two periods later, for social studies class. And they remained together until their next period: lunch.

It was a welcomed time, in which the students all could gather and relax for being ready for the next periods. Also, they all needed to eat. It was easy to say that it was Bunga's favorite period, and also, the one he did best, in his own oppinion.

For Kion, it was a good time to gather along with all of his friends and have some minutes of nice talk and to be able to share with them his time.

Indeed, he, Bunga and Ono reunited with Beshte and Fuli, and soon, they were all sitting together into a table, all of them eating their fill while they talked about the day. It was a nice moment for all of them to talk, laugh and relax before they would have to go back to their next periods. Sure, it was only for a few minutes, but they would also have the meetings outside of school. Still, it was nice to be able to gather around with his friends and have a nice talk.

They talked about a lot of things, basically, about how they had passed their times, and how had been their days till now. All of that ponctued by some remarks about the teachers and about what they had learned, mostly from Bunga, who never escaped from the chance of making a funny remark, which made everyone laugh. Bunga had always been a clown, he got it from his adoptive father and uncle, as it was easy to notice.

Eventually, Fuli asked: "What about the new history teacher?"

"Oh, he was very nice." Ono said, and he explained to them about the wolf who was their new teacher. Basically, that he seemed to be a very nice teacher, and that he had a good way with words and that he seemed to be adaptating to the town. Bunga also said that the wolf seemed to be very nice, and that he was a good teacher, overall.

The only one who didn't said anything was Kion. And this didn't went unnoticed by Beshte.

"And you, Kion? What do you think of the Mr. Howler?" The hippo asked his lion friend, and Kion looked up at him, and at his friends, who were also looking at him, waiting to know of his oppinion.

Kion took a few moments to decide what to tell his friends, and he ended up deciding to tell them his true oppinion, even if it would sound strange.

"Well... honestly... I thought him to be a little strange." Kion said, and his friends all looked at him, not understanding the thing of being strange. Kion sighed, and he explained to them the feeling he had that the teacher was eyeing him since the moment that he had came into the classroom, and also, what had been told to him by the teacher rigth after Ono and Bunga left. He told then about that which the wolf said, about his potential, and about responsability, and about the talk of grabbing it or letting go.

When he finished, his friends were all looking at him.

"He really said that?" Bunga asked, and Kion only nodded, "Strange, isn't it?" He asked, and the honey badger talked, "I knew that there was something wrong about him, he is crazy!"

"Well, I agree it sounds a little strange." Said Beshte, with a finger on his chin. Fuli also said, "Kion, don't you think you are a bit paranoid? I mean, he looked at every in the classroom, didn't he?"

Indeed, Fuli had a point, but this did not diminished Kion's sureness that the wolf took a particular interest into looking at him, and this was soon confirmed by Ono. "Actually, I also had the impression that Mr. Howler seemed to be particularly interested in Kion."

The eyes all turned to him, and he said, "I thought it was just an impression, but I think that I saw him eyeing Kion in a strange way, almost as if he had recognized him." He turned to Kion, "I was actually going to ask you if you and him and meet before."

Kion looked at Ono, as once again he thougtht about how to answer, and after a second or two, he finally said, "Well... under normal circunstances, no..."

This caught the group's attention, as they all looked at him, and Beshte said, "What do you mean? You and him already met under abnormal circusntances?"

Kion looked at him and was about to answer, but he stopped.

What he was going to say?

That he had a dream with the teacher?

This could be misinterpreted in several ways, one more embarrassing than the other, and now that Kion had started, he could not simply drop the matter. He thought about maybe lying, but he didn't liked the idea of doing it to his friends, also, he could not think of anything that would be a good excuse.

His friedns noticed that he had stopped talking, and soon, Fuli asked, "Kion? Is everything okay?"

Kion looked at his friends, and after a few moments, he sighed, and he said, "Do you promise you won't laugh?"

His friends all shared a look, and they all nodded, and Kion finally said, "Well the first time that I saw him was last night..." Kion said, "In a dream I had."

He looked at his friends, who all looked at him for a few moments, and they shared a look among themselves, and soon after they started to snicker.

Kion immediatelly groaned, and he lowered his had, covering his face with his furred hand, as he knew that now he would probably be a laughing stock for the next weeks.

His friends were laughing a little, well, Bunga was laughing, while Fuli was chuckling slight, and even Beshte was doing his best to hold back his laughter, and Ono, well, even he laughedd a little, though not as much as Bunga. Kion could feel his cheeks so hot that he thought that they were going to start melting, he immediatelly regretted having got up from his bed at all in that day.

"Okay, I know, it is stupid! Now quit it!" Kion said, trying to hide his blush as he seemed to want to dissapear into thin air and materialize again somewhere far away. His friends kept like this for a few moments, before Beshte said.

"Sorry, Kion." He said, as he was still trying to hold back a laugh, and was rather sucessful, but it was still clear that he was making effort. Kion grumbled and looked away, and he heard Bunga saying: "Man, Kion, now you sounded just all these mumbo-jumbo guys from tv and comicbooks!"

Kion groaned louder, and he fought back the urge to slap Bunga in the back of the head and walk away to eat alone. After a while, for his relief, the laughter died down, and his friends finally looked seriously at him again, and Bunga asked, "So, what kind of dream it was?"

Kion looked at him, and for a moment, he remained in silence again. Now, how he could explain that he didn't even knew what kind of dream it was? He didn't thought that he would handle having his friends laughing of his face again. Still, he knew that the best way of getting out of this was telling the truth and facing it as best as he could. At least it would save what was left of his pride.

"Well, actually, I don't remember very well." Kion said, trying to avoid looking at his friends, and instead, focusing on his hands. "Well, I remember that it was into a strange place and... there were... strange things... I don't know..." Kion thought about it for a moment, and he said, "And, I'm pretty sure that the wolf was there... I don't know... I just remember it was really strange."

"So, you don't even remember what you dreamed?" Fuli asked, and Bunga said, "Man, I hate these kinds of dreams."

"Who doesn't?" Asked Kion, and he expected the matter to simply be dropped, but his wish was not fulfilled, as Beshte said, "But, how can you have known him into a dream right before you saw him in real life for the first time?"

"That is a good question." Said Fuli, also looking at Kion. The young lion wanted to say something about it, but the truth was that he couldn't. He could not explain about it. Kion really had no way of explaining what had happened to lead to this kind of sittuation, and so, his friends started to offer their own explanations.

"Maybe you have just dreamed about a regualr wolf, and you associated Mr. Howler with the dream when you saw him?" Asked Beshte, and actually, that one made some sense. "I already had this sensation a few times when I woke up."

"It is a valid explanation." Ono said, and he added, "Or else, you could have saw him earlier and don't remember. Maybe you had saw him already in the past a few days earlier, and your subcounscious had kept his memory in your mind and brought it back to you in the form of this dream. I heard that sometimes it could happen. The subcounscious is really a very powerful thing."

"I don't know, this one seems to be a little forced." Said Fuli, and Kion was forced to agree with her. Still, both explanations actually were able to explain the strange fact of this "foresight" that Kion had about the wolf in his dream. Of course, Bunga had another explanation.

"Or, maybe you dreamed about the future!" The honey badger said, and all the eyes in the table turned to him. "Yeah, that happens a lot!" Bunga said, and it was clear that he was talking about tv, comics and video games. Still, the blue mammal talked about it as if he believed that it was basically the same as real life.

"Yeah, the hero always has some short of precognitive dream like that before embarking in his great adventure!" Bunga said, sounded somewhat excited "The hero has a prophetic dream about the great danger or the great adventure that he has ahead of himself, showing him his destiny and the path he must take to save the world! And usually, in these dreams, he has a vision of his mentor, who will guide him to the future through this path!"

"And it just fits with what happened!" Bunga added quickly, seeming suddenly even more excited. "That thing with Mr. H about your potential and the thing of responsibility and danger totally fits it! Kion, maybe you are a destined hero! Maybe Mr. H is some short of spiritual guide who has come here to find you and train you to achieve your great destiny as a big hero who will save the world!" Bunga sounded almost dreaming as he said that, "Just like in the video games!"

His friends all looked at him, and they shared a look. They knew that now it was just Bunga being Bunga, and so, Ono said, "I'm not sure if it is exactly what is happening in here."

"I'm with Ono." Said Beshte "Sorry, Bunga, but I think that this explanation is too much forced. I mean, this is not a video game, and I really don't think that Mr. Howler would really be a spiritual guide."

"Why would a spiritual guide find job as a teacher." Fuli said, enforcing the other two's arguments, and even Kion was forced to agree.

"Yeah, I don't think it is it." The young lion said, "But, I have to say that he looked rather cool with the musketeer outfit and fighting these monsters."

These words caught Kion himself off guard.

His friends all looked at him, surprised at what he said. "What now?" Bunga asked.

"Muskeeter outfit?" Asked Fuli.

Kion looked at his friends, as surprised as them for his own words. So, slowly, it was like his dream was coming back at him. As if he was remembering something that had happened years ago and he had forgotten.

"Yeah..." Kion said slowly, as the memories of the dream were coming back at him at pieces. "I... was in a different place... It was very strange. It was almost a maze."

His friends all looked at him, and Kion continued, "I think I... arrived in a place with many doors, and I opened one of them. And I saw... monsters... a lot of them."

Kion shivered. Though he could not remember the form or appearence of the monsters that he had saw in his dream, somehow the very memory of them made his soul flinch. "They were evil." Kion said, only half-aware he was saying it. "I could feel that they were evil."

His friends all looked at him, and Beshte said, "So, it was a nightmare?"

"Yes... No... I'm not sure..." Kion said, and he continued. "And... I saw him... Mr. Howler... or the wolf... He was dressed as a muskeeter, and he had even these hats with feather on his head. And he had a sword..."

Kion thought about it, as the pieces came, one at a time. "And he was... fighting the monsters..."

"You mean, like a super hero?" Bunga asked, starting to like this story, and Kion thought for a moment.

"Well... kind of." The lion said, as he remembered brief pieces of information from his dream. "He seemed a little like that. He was fast and strong and... He had a sword... No... Many swords... A lot of them. And he took them out of nowhere." Kion said, remembering the images from his dream. "Man, where did he got all these swords from?" He asked himself without realizing it.

"Oh, like in cartoons?" Bunga asked, and his friends looked at Kion, "Wow, that dream seemed to be really strange." Said Fuli.

"And what happened?" Asked Bunga, now having been caught up in the middle of the story, as if it was the newest number of his favorite comicbook. Kion looked at him, as he was still trying to remember.

"He fougth the monsters." Kion said, "He was doing good, but..." He made a pause, as he felt his stomach sinking as he started to have flashes of memory about what he had saw in that dream. "There was too many of them... They started to back him and he started to have trouble."

His friends all got interested in this, and they all seeming to be nearing him, as if to hear it better. Specially Bunga, who looked as if he was watching a particularly important scene from a movie, as he was almost on the edge of his chair to hear what Kion was saying.

"He fell." Kion said finally, "And the monsters started to go to him... They were almost over him... I was far, watching it all. And then he... he looked at me, and he screamed something in my direction..."

His friends all looked at him, and Fuli asked, "What did he screamed?"

Kion thought about it, and he said, "I don't know. I couldn't hear... but... There was someone else in there..." Kion said, more memories coming at him. "Someone who was right by my side and... he talked to me."

Kion's friends all looked at him, and the young lion continued. "He said something about... helping, and power... And he showed me his hand..." Kion said, as he looked at his own paw, as he was remembering the dream on its most basic information. He remembered very well of the shape he saw, as if he had already saw it a thousand times before.

"Red diamond..." Kion said in a low voice, more to himself than to his friends. But it did not stopped his friends from hearing him, and they all shared a look, and Beshte asked, "And then?"

Kion looked at him and at all his friends, who looked very intently at him, and after a few moments, he finally said, "I fell from my bed and woke up in the floor."

There were a few moments of silence. And Fuli said, "Wow... That was quite a dream."

"Yeah." Kion said, and Bunga said, "That was so cool! I would like to have a dream like that! I would kick some serious tail of some monsters!" He made a few poses with his arms as if he was in the middle of a fight.

"Do you think it means something?" Beshte asked, and Kion only shrugged as he didn't knew what to say about it. But it seemed that Ono had.

"Maybe it is your subcounscious trying to tell you something." The eggret said, looking at his lion friend. "Dreams are a way of our uncounscious mind processing what the counscious mind usually don't take in imediatelly. Usually our fears and our worries, if not something deeper. Maybe your deep mind wants to tell you something important..."

"Like what?" Kion asked, and Ono said, "Maybe that you have more talent than you think? Maybe that if you make more effort to try to be better you can help a lot of people? Who knows?"

Kion thought about it for a moment. Yes, indeed it made a little sense (who knew?) if you thought about it. And Kion finally said, "Yeah... but it still doesn't explain why Mr. Howler was on my dream before I even knew him..."

"Like we said, maybe you saw him earlier and didn't remembred until having the dream." Ono said, "Or maybe you associated him witht he wolf in your dream by instinct. It is also a possibility."

Kion thought about it, and it all made sense... Still, he had a strange feeling in his guts, as if that dream was much more important than that.

The young lion could not quite explain what was the feeling, he just felt like there was more to that than just a dream that he woke up suddenly from. It was the feeling in the back of his mind, maybe intuition (?) that just made him feel like what he had experienced in there was much deeper than just a dream.

As he thougth about it, Bunga continued. "Man, I wish I had more dreams like that! It must be trully awesome!" He looked at his friends. "I mean, having a dream where I can see a super hero fighting hordes of monsters? That would be so cool!"

"Yes, but the prospect of beign into a mysterious place with a horde of unknown creatures like what Kion described don't seems to be much appealing." Said Ono, and Fuli also said, "And Kion also said that the wolf was losing."

"Yeah, but there was someone else in there!" Bunga said back, "Someone who was offering Kion the power to help! I mean, it was like he was offered to become a super hero too! And that would be awesome!" He seemed really very hypped when he said it, "Man, if someone offered it to me I would have took it in a heartbeat!"

Bunga said, and suddenly he stopped, and he said, "Hey, now it does  _really_  sounds like something like a prophetic dream!" He said, turning to Kion, "As if it was your own call for a great adventure!"

Kion heard what he said, and he looked rather briefly to his honey badger friend, and he said nothing. Ono was invalidating that theory, of course, as he was clearly saying that it was not based in any scientific area, however, Kion didn't knew if he trully disagreed with Bunga.

However, they didn't had much more time to discuss it, for the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period and the start of the next.

Kion soon said goodbye to his firends and he rushed to his next class, which was the same as Ono, but not the same as Bunga. It was too bad, for Bunga still wanted to ask Kion more about his dream, and offer his own theories about the strange event that it was.

He was conforted by the saying that they would have more time too discuss it after their classes were over, and so, the friends all followed their separated ways.

* * *

The day passed rather normal, as Ono and Kion both had chemestry period and soon followed by P.E, in which they met with Fuli again. Ono was not very good in sports, as it was easy to notice by his rather frail building, and Kion was a little regular. Well, he was slightly above average, as the teacher said, seeming that he was a litlte good in sports.

Of course, Fuli was the one who was really great at it. Her thin building could hide it, but she was one ofthe best athletes, with a rare combination of strenght, speed and agility into her body. She was easilly one of the best of the whole class, it was not surprise that she was in the athletic team. Kion couldn't help but get admired each time that he saw her, and so was Ono.

Soon that period was also over, and everyone changed back to their regular clothes and they walked to their next and last period, what was, in Kion and Ono's case, Biology. After that, the final bell signalled for everyone that the classes were over and it was time to go home.

Of course, needless to say that, after this last one, pratically everybody cheered as they finally were free from school and could take care fo their own lives. Even Kion was happy to be able to end it, and finally be able to walk away and take care of his own affairs... This is, if he actually had something to do after classes besides homework.

* * *

Kion and his friends all met after the last bell. The clubs had not started out yet, and they would, actually, only start in over two weeks after the classes started. So, Kion and his friends had all the time in the world to be able to expend together. And they had all decided to use it to go to the mall.

After all, Kion was already age enough to mind his own business, in his parents oppinion, as long as he was home in time to dinner and he gave it a call if he was going to be late. If he didn't... well, having your father as being a police captain was not the best thing if you get yourself in trouble and don't respect the rules. His father could put half of the police after him with just one call, and Kion had decided since earlier that it was better not to mess things up. Sure, he was not sure if his father would really come this far, but Kion decided not to test his luck.

There were a few malls into the city, and they had choosen to go into one of their official favorites. This one had plenty of places that satisfy to most of them. It had a place where you could practice sports, there was a lot of bookstores, a movie theater, a lot of places to eat, and an inside fliperama.

Everybody could be satisfied in there to their fully, and that was why the place was their favorite. It was the kind of place that never was boring and always had something to do and something happening.

And indeed, there were a lot of things happening in that place. There were people walking around, most of them students who came from school to take a break from the first day, and to be able to enjoy new things, and there were also some couples out there in a date, and groups going in a hangout togheter, as it was the right of everyone.

There were a lot of things happening in that place, all of them which were nice and expected to happen into a place like that. However, there were also other things happening in that mall, things that were not exactly expected at all. Things that should not be happening in a place like that, with so much innocent bystanders around.

In the depths of the place, in areas that should be forbidden to the public, something was crawling in the dark. Though no one would be able to see it, it was still there, and it was moving around in the shadows, alsmot as if it was there and not there at the same time. And it was doing something...

* * *

Kion was with his friends into the music shop, Bunga didn't stopped bragging about the new CD he wanted to buy, of one of his favorite music groups. The rest of the group enjoyed it, for everyone loved music.

Fuli was searching for some groups that she could hear. She liked to hear her favorite musics while she was training, it was like a personal soundtrack that helped her to focus. Beshte was searching for some tranquil music, and also some classics, he was a fan. And Ono was searching for some heavy metal. Yeah, the nerd eggret was a fan of heavy metal, which he listened in his free time. He was full of surprises.

Kion, on his own area, was more a fan of the classic punk-rock, and also some pop. And he was there when his friends talked.

"Look this, guys, one collection of the best melodies of Mozzard!" Beshte said as he showed the CD to his friends. "These ones are hard to find!"

"Very nice." Said Ono, as he was looking into the section that he was in, searching for a specific number of collections, and Fuli had just got some CDs of heavy rock. Bunga was right on her side, and he had just got a huge pile of CDs in his arms, which he most likely could not affort all. Kion was a little far, and he had just put on some phones. He was listening to a good rock music, and he was moving his head slightly at the rhytim of the sound.

Kion even started to sing along slihgtly with the music. He had always liked rock. Actually, Kion liked a little of every kind of music, specially the ones that had a dancing rhytim. And it was even better if the lyrics had a meaning, Kion liked these kinds of songs.

Kion was hearing the song he had chosen, when he heard something among the music.

_Come to me..._

His eyes shot open as he heard it. He knew that music, and it didn't had that whisper among the guitar.

Kion removed the phones, and he looked around, and then, he heard it again.

_Come to me..._

It was barelly louder than a whisper, still, Kion was pretty sure that he had heard it. It was a voice, and it was not like anyone that Kion had ever heard. It was dark, and it gave his chills in the back of his spine.

Kion looked around, but he didn't saw anyone, and it didn't seemed that anyone had heard the voice.

What was that? Was he imagining things?

But the voice came again, this time a bit louder, and Kion had absolutelly no mistake that he had heard it.

_Come to me now_

Kion looked at all sides, trying to pin-point the source of that strange and heart-chilling voice. However, he didn't saw anyone. He instinctivelly backed away to closer to his friends, and he said, "Guys... did you hear that?"

"Yeah, if I didn't!" Bunga said with a smile, "All of the CDs for only half the price! Man, this is something that does not happen everyday!" Bunga was clearly talking about the special promotion that was announced about one minute ago, and that was the reason for he was carrying so much CDs on his arms.

Kion looked at him, and at Fuli, who was simply smilling as she shook her head, and he even cast a glance at Ono and Beshte, who were still looking for their CDs. It really seemed that Kion was the only one who had heard it. For a moment, the young lion even wondered if he was starting to hear things, but his thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone saying.

"Hey, look out!"

Kion and his friends turned around to see what was it, and they saw that one animal in there was acting strange. He was a shark, wearing blue T-shirt and long cargo pants, and he was still with a headphone in his head, and he was walking strange. It was like he was lost, or confused, and he was walking to out of the store, without even bothering to take off the phones, and he was almost bumping into a lot of people as he walked to the outside.

"Hey!"

"Look were you are going, kid!"

"Ouch! That is my tail!"

"What is wrong with him?" Asked Fuli as she looked to the seemingly dazzed shark walk to outside.

"Maybe he is hearing a new song from Shakira?" Bunga offered "Her music is kind of dazzling." He said with a smile. But Kion didn't thought it like that. There was something going with with that shark, something strange. Kion just had this feeling, and he heard the voice again.

_Come to me, my dear... I'm waiting for you_

And the shark seemed to start to go a little faster, as if he suddenly was in a hurry. And it had been in the same moment that the voice had talked a bit louder, and Kion was pretty sure that he had heard it.

Kion looked at the shark who walked outside, as he wondered...

Could it be possible?

"Hmmm, guys, I just remembered I had to do a thing." Kion said to his friends over his shoulder, "I'll be meeting you in the fast food of the third floor?"

He was almost asking if he could go, and his friends said, "Yeah, sure!"

"Hm, yeah, see you later."

And with that, Kion walked to outside, and he started to follow that shark.

The shark was almost bumping into several people along the way, and he didn't even seemed to mind. It was like all that mattered was to get to where he was going, though it seemed that he was so lost that he didn't even knew where he was at the present moment.

Kion followed him through some stairs, until they started to go into the undergroud. It seemed that they were going in direction to the garage.

_"What is this?"_  Kion thogiht to himself, as he wondered just what the shark was doing in there. And yet, Kion could still hear the voice, and it was becoming louder.

_Come to me... I'm waiting for you... Come to me..._

That voice was giving him creeps. It sounded feminine, and yet, it didn't seemed that it belonged to any woman. Or man, by the way. It was like what owned that voice was not to be put in that categories.

Kion was starting to get increasingly worried as he felt the chills in his spine growing, until he could feel the fur on his back all standing on end.

He had the strong and undeniable feeling that they were not supposed to be there.

* * *

Right outside the mall, one familiar shape of an wolf wearing a brown suit had just stepped out of his car.

John sighed as he was quite satisfied with his first day at his new job. It was nice, as a job can be. Good thing that he liked to teach people. In the past he had only gave classes to small groups, or in particular sessions, it was new giving lessons to a whole class. Anyway, it was a good experience to him, and he had the feeling that he was going to get along with it nicely.

He decided to pass in the mall in order to get himself busy and distracted from his work, and to get himself a well needed break from all of that. Maybe he could watch the new movie, or maybe he could eat something. That day was one that he decided to take to relax.

He took a deep breath, and he started to walk to the mall. However, as soon as he got near the entrance, he felt something vibrating in his hand.

"Hm?"

The wolf looked at his furred hand, and he saw that the silver ring on his middle finger was vibrating slightly, and the diamond in it was emmiting a winking glow. John looked at his ring, as he knew that it could only meant one thing.

It seemed that his "side job" had decided that his break was going to be delayed... again...

* * *

Kion was following the shark into the depths of the mall, going to a darker and more desert place at the moment. Kion had chills all over his body, as if he was feeling a presence in there, as if someone was watching him. The shark, however, didn't seemed to mind, as he simply kept walking forward, ignoring eveything around him.

There was a point that Kion decided that it maybe was time to stop it, and soon, he was approaching the shark, and he said.

"Hmm, hi?"

The shark didn't answered, as if he hadn't heard Kion, and instead, he only kept walking forward, as if the lion who called for him didn't even existed.

But Kion didn't gave up. "Look, sorry for following you but, I had a feeling you were acting strange and, I thought that you could maybe need a little help... Are you okay?"

There was a silence as they both walked, and the shark said, "I have to go to her..."

"What?"

"I have to go to her." The shark repeated, almsot mechanically, "She is calling for me." And as he said that, there was the voice again, and now it really sounded like someone calling.

_Come to me..._

"She is calling me." The shark said, "I have to go to her..."

Kion looked surprised at the shark, who seemed to be able to hear the exact same thing that Kion was hearing. At first, Kion was relieved that he was not only imagining it, for it meant that he was not going crazy. But then, he felt a wave of fear as, if he was not imagining it, than it meant that it was real. And it also meant that there were something very strange going on in there.

_I'm here... come to me._

The voice kept calling, and the shark answered. "I'm going..." And he kept walking, and soon, he and Kion arrived in front of a door, which said, "Authorized People Only". The shark didn't hesitated one second in grabbing the handle of the door and opening it and walking inside.

Kion had a very bad feeling on his guts. It felt like every single one of his instincts were telling him to turn around and run away form there as fast as he could, for something horrible was about to happen in that place.

"Look, I think we should go." Kion said, putting a hand in the shark's shoulder, but he was ignored, as the voice kept calling him.

_You are almost here now... I'm waiting for you._

This seemed to motivate the shark to go a little faster, as he was walking now almost as if he was late for an important meeting, and this was getting Kion worried.

"We have to go back!" Kion said, now starting to get really worried, as he tried to pull the shark's arm, but the fish was proving to be stronger than him, as he kept walking forward, and repeating, "I have to go to her."

Kion was starting to have troubles to hold the shark back, as the sea creature was proving to be too strong for him. His instincs were telling him to run away and leave the shark. However, the feeling that had something bad about to happen in that place made him dischart the idea of leaving the poor guy alone in there.

Kion was about to try to convince him to go back and leave the place along with him, but, before he could...

_Who is that with you?_

Kion froze, as he knew immediatelly that this woman or whatever it was, was talking about him, he looked to all sides, trying to pin-point where the voice had came from, but he could not find it, it was like it was all around him.

_Wait..._

There were a few moments of silence, and suddenly the voice came again.

_YOU!_

Till now the voice had came only as a sweet voice, as if it was luring people. However, in that moment, the voice sounded booming, and had adopted a much more mounstruous tone as if it was possessed by anger. It made Kion's heart take a mortal flip as he almost jumped out of his own fur. The shark, however, was still in the same daze he had been up to the moment.

Kion was about to start to drag him away from that place, when suddenly, he felt like the space around him was changing.

Kion looked around, as he saw that the very air around him seemed to be changing and distorting itself, and it was like Kion and the shark were suddenly caught in the middle of a whirlwind, as the ambient around them changed.

"What is going on!?" Kion cried out, but the shark seemed to be oblivious to his question and to what was happening, and suddenly, Kion saw that they were no longer into that place in the mall. Now they were in a very different place.

Kion looked around, to see that they were now in some short of place near the ocean, or so it seemed.

Normally Kion would have asked himself how he got ot the beach so suddenly, but he was distracted by the appearence of that place he was in now. It was unlike any beach Kion had ever seen. The sands beneath his feet were made of purple sand, and the rocks seemed to be of a deep-crimson red, and they had several forms that made them look like cracked and fanged teeth. And the waters that Kion saw on his left were so yellow that they alsmot looked like melted gold. And looking up, Kion was able to see a green colored sky.

What was that!? What on earth was going on!? Had he lost his mind? He was trully delusional!? He was going to wake up next into a madhouse into a straight-jacket?

As Kion pondered over it, suddenly he caught something moving in the corner of his eyes. He looked over, to see something raising from the purple sand. And it were crabs. But not regular crabs. These ones were bigger than him! And they had a deep purple color, save for the for big claws that they had, which were crimson, it alsmot made it look like they were soaked in blood. This thougth alone made Kion shudder, but not more than that feeling that the crabs passed him. It was almsot as if the evil was leaking from them... It almost felt like...

_Bring me the shark!_

The voice said again, snapping Kion out of his thoughts as it was somehow even scarier than the crabs themselves. And his heart almost stoped when he heard the next words.

_Kill the lion!_

The crabs all snapped their jaws, as they started to approach both animals, and they were almost drooling a yellow substance from their mouths. In that moent, Kion did the only thing he could think in the moment: he grabbed the shark by the wrist with both hands, and he started to run in the opposite direction, pratically dragging the shark with him using a strenght that he didn't even knew that he had.

The adrenalin coursing through his body was enough to give him this kind of power, and Kion was running fast, but not so fast, once the shark behind him seemed to still be dazzed, and was not running properly, it was more as if he was stumbled as he was pulled by the arm by that young lion.

Kion could heard the snapping of the claws of the crabs behind him, telling that they were being followed, and they seemed to be getting closer. Kion knew that at this rate they would probably be caught, and many other people would have abandoned the shark and ran to save their own lives. But Kion was not going to do it. Like hell he was going to abandon someone to be caught by these things! His family raised him to be better than that!

Kion ran across the beach, trying to open a good distance, and to maybe find a way back to the mall. However, he soon was finding that this place was very big. Kion was looking forward and he could not see any end of it, only an endless horizon. And looking to all sides, Kion could not find anything that would tell him where that place ended, or where could be an exit back to the place they were before. And Kion almost had the impression that the own ambient around him was constantly changing, as he was passing by some rocks that he was sure that weren't there when he looked ahead.

What the heck was going on!?

Kion was panting, his adrenalin at full force as he kept dragging the shark. His legs were starting to hurt from running, but Kion forced himself to keep going. The sounds of the monstruous crabs behind him being a strong encouragement.

Kion kept running, until he saw something ahead of him moving under the purple sand, and suddenly bursting, to reveal more of the mounstrous crabs. Kion gasped, as he stopped suddenly, the shark alsmot making both of them fall to the ground.

Kion was about to turn to run, but he saw the other crabs coming to them.

They were surrounded!

By both sides, the crabs snapped their claws and drooled the golden fluid from their mouths, which fell to the sand, creating foam. Kion started to back away as they circled them, keeping the shark right behind himself, until both of them had their backs agaisnt a big rock.

They were trapped.

The crabs all clapped their claws in their direction, and Kion almost had the impression that he could see hunger in their eyes as they looked at him.

Kion never imagined that he would end like that... Well, taking a shot maybe, but eaten by giant crabs?

Kion could pratically see the letters in the newspaper:  **Son of the Police Captain Found In Pieces! Perits Suspect that he was Victim of Mutant Crabs!**

Kion could feel his heard hammering in his chest, as he kept the shark behind him. The first of the crabs was right in front of him, and it had its fours claws ready to shred him into pieces. Kion closed his eyes, and waited for his fate...

_Zhuum_

_Chint!_

There was a silence, and Kion opened a single eye, just in time to see that the crab was still in front of him, and that he was froze in place. Looking over, Kion saw the reason. There was a sword piercing the crab's head, right between his eyes/antenna, sunk till the hilt, which was silvery and decorated with small diamonds.

Kion blinked surprised, as he saw that the crab was stumbling, and finally, fell to the ground, and its body started to foam, starting into the point that the sword was sunk, unilt it was nothing more than foam into the ground in front of Kion.

The lion looked stunned at the ground, to what was left of the creature, that soon was vanishing, and he heard a familiar voice.

"Wow, that was a close one, wasn't it?"

Kion suddenly looked up, at the top of the rock he and the shark had their backs turned to, and he saw the very familiar form of Mr. Howler on top of it. The wolf was looking down at him with a smile.

"Mr. Howler!?" Kion said, shocked to see his new history teacher in there. The wolf simply smiled at him, and said, "Hello, Prideland."

And then, with a very swift move, the wolf jumped down from the rock, and landed in the ground, just above the foam that dissapeared, from the destroyed crab. The other crabs all snapped their claws, but they backed away one step, however, they were still circling the animals.

Howler looked at Kion, and he said, "So, how did you ended up in here?" He was asking as if it was something totally casual, and they were not at the moment into a freaky place with freaky creatures.

Kion looked at him, and he said, "I-I saw that guy acting strange up there." Kion pointed at the shark behind him, who looked as if he was still on a daze. "I followed him down there. There was a voice calling him."

"He told you that?" The wolf asked, and Kion said, "I heard the voice too."

Howler looked at him, and he said, "Really?" He still had that smile on his face, as he looked at Kion, "How interesting..."

Kion looked at the wolf, and soon, he said, "Wait, what is interesting? What is going on? What is this place? What are these things!?"

Howler looked at Kion for a few moments, and he said, "Yeah, I'm sure that you have a lot of questions."

In that moment, the crabs behind them hissed, and claped their claws, as if they were ready to kill them. Kion gasped, but Howler simply said, "But, before that, let me take care of this, okay?" And he turned to face the crabs.

For a moment, Kion wondered if he was crazy. He really planned to face these things alone!?

However, as he looked, the wolf raised his right hand, and the ring on his middle finger started to glow , until the white glow enveloped him.

Kion blinked as he saw the wolf being covered inot white light, and after a few moments, the wolf was still in front of him, but now, he had a completelly different clothing. He was wearing a muskeeter outfit, composed by shirt and pants, all white with golden trimming. He had a hat in his head with a white colored brooch in it and a silvery feather, and a long cape behind himself.

Kion blinked for a moment, trying to convince himself that he was really seeing it.

That clothes... His dream... It couldn't be...

The wolf looked at the crabs, and he smiled, he took a hand to his chest, and he pulled from there a long and silvery sword, and he pointed them at the crabs, and said, "Okay, who is first?"

The crabs all snapped their calws, and two of them marched straight to the wolf, their claws ready for cut him in two.

"Mr. Howler! Look out!" Kion screamed, and the wolf moved his sword, and he blocked all the four pair of claws that got in his direction. "I got this." He said with a smirk to Kion, as he pushed them back, and swung his leg fast, hitting them with a kick that proppeled them back. Kion blinked at this, as he saw the wolf doing something as amazing as that. And it sparkled a memory of his dream.

Well... Kion now was not even sure if that was really a dream. At the moment, under the present circunstances, Kion was not sure of anything anymore.

Howler looked around himself, as he saw the Crabs all snapping their jaws, seeming to be ready to pounce at him, and he smirked, and he brought his other hand to under his cape, and he brought out of there another sword, identical to the one in his hand, and he stood in place, as he said, "Bring it."

As if on clue, the crabs advanced against him, three at a time, and the wolf was able to parry the attacks of their big claws and attack back. He one claw from one of them was cut clean off with a swift move of his sword, and it immediatelly dissolved into foam, being nothing more than bubbles in the moment if hit the ground.

Soon after, he made another swift move, and pierced another Crab several times in the sheel, piercing it and reaching for the soft insides. Immediatelly, that crab fell to the ground and started to dissolve. Immediatelly after, another crab tried to pinch the wolf with his claws, but each one of them was parred by the blades of his swords with amazing speed and skill.

He parred the attacks of the claws, and he made a swift move with it, slicing the crab in half horizontally. Both halfs dissolved into foam as they fell to the ground. He looked at it, and soon, another crab moved, and stood right behind him, it's claws ready to pierce him. However, Howler, as if having eyes on his back, moved his arm and his sword into the crab in a vertical attack, like a slicing motion, and he was able to pierce the monster's shell right between the eyes, and the wound soon was foaming, and the wolf pulled back his sword, and sliced another crab, that was right in front of him, and both crabs dissolved into foam.

The wolf had no time to enjoy his sucess, though, for he immediatelly had to jump to avoid being snipped in half by another big claw from one of the crabs, and he had to keep jumping and dodging and parrying it with his swords, to protect himself as he kept fighting.

Many would already have ran way, but the wolf was not like everybody, as it was easy to notice, and he kept fighting, and he was able to score some hits into the crabs, making some of them dissapear. The wolf dodged another attack from a giant claw by spinning at his side, and he swung his sword, cutting off the legs of the side of the body of the owner of that claw, making it stumble to the ground, unnable to get up, and flailing its claws desperatelly.

Howler didn't gave him attention, though, for he immediatelly, parred another blown from the claws of another crab, and he made a swift move with his other sword to cut the claw clean off, and he shoved the blades of both swords in the body, piercing it at the level of the mouth, and making the thing start to foam. Immediatelly, he swung both swords, opening two big gashes into the body of the crab flailing in the ground. The gashes foammend, and soon did the whole crab.

Howler finally got back to pose, and he saw all of the crabs that were still surrounding him, and he sighed. This was going to take all day. He raised both swords, and he threw them, hitting two crabs into vital points, making them foam and vanish, just like the others, and immediatelly, he reached out for the feather in his hat, and pulled it out. He stared fiercerly at the crabs that surrounded him, and he threw the feather in the air.

It swayed in the air for a few moments, and then, as if having a mind of it's own, it moved, and buried itself into the head of a crab. The thing stood still, it's claws flailing around slightly, and it started to foam, just like the others. In that moment, the feather flew out of the foam, and it swirled in the air.

Howler had his fingers pointed at the feather, and he moved them across, and he somehow was making the feather mimic their movements by flying around like a missile.

The feather immediatelly flew and pierced another crab, entering by one side of its body and getting out in the other, and as that one started to dissolve, it immediatelly flew to the other, and pierced it just like it did with the other. And so it was doing with all of the crabs, making them flinch and snap their claws as it pierced them as an arrow, only to soon dissapear from sight a few moments later, dissapearing into foam.

The feather had just traveled to the last crab which was left, and flew around it, piecing it several times in a row, and finally, erupting from the area between its eyes, spilling foam from it, as the whole crab dissolved slowly, snapping and flailing its claws, before it finally feel to the ground, and started to completelly dissapear, until there was absolutelly nothing left.

The feather finally flew back at the wolf's hands, and he caught it swiftly, and with the same move, put it back into his hat. He smiled at himself, as he let out a lightly sigh. He was still getting it.

Behind him, Kion could only look at it with utter amazement, as he had really saw it. He was having troubles to convince himself that it was for real, even if he had witnessed it with his own eyes.

After a few moments, he was snapped back to reality as he heard a loud cry, making him jump. It seemed the same female-like voice from earlier, and it sounded utterly furious. In that same moment, the world around them started to bent and tremble again, as the ways were once more changing.

A few moments later, they were back into the basement of the mall, as if they had never really got out of there at all.

He heard his teacher say "Wow, that was a close one!" as he turned to face both Kion and the shark, who still seemed to be far away from there. The wolf approached them, and he asked, "So, are you both okay?"

Kion looked at him, and he nodded slowly, as he looked the wolf up and down into his outfit, one that remembered very mucht he dream he had last night.

No... it was  _exactly_  like his dream. The outfit, the swords, the flying feather and, now that he really stopped to think about it, even these monsters!

Kion looked at the wolf for a few moments, and he couldn 't help but ask the only thing that he was able to formulate in his mind at moment.

"What?... How?..."

Mr. Howler at the young lion for a few moments, and he offered him a smile, "Yeah, I suppose that you deserve some explanations, right?" He got straight again, and he said, "Well, I'm a  _Milies Magi_. But if you prefer, you might call me a Magic Knight."

Kion just stared at him for a few moments, as he really hope that he was going to get much more explanation than just that...

 

 

 

 

 


	4. Explanations, At Least!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events of the mall, Mr. Howler finally give Kion some explainings.
> 
> Now, Kion sees himself diving head-first into a world that he never imagined. A world hiddne beneath everyone's noses. A wolrd of magical beasts, magic, amazing powers, parallel dimensions, demons, secrets, and flashy costumes!  
> And also, he sees himself in front of a choice: the choice of forgetting about this fantastical world and going back to a normal life, or diving in it and becoming a warrior of justice!

"Man, where did Kion went?" Asked Bunga as he looked around. It already made more than twenty minutes since their friend had went "who knows where" suddenly, and they still hadn't any news of him. His friends were actually starting to get worried.

"You think he might have got lost?" Asked Besteh

"In the mall?" Said Fuli "He knows this place as well as any of us."

"I'm starting to have concerns." Said Ono, as he was looking around. In fact, all the four of them were starting to get concerned with Kion having vanished like that. Taking so long to give any news was worring, especially considering that Kion had, seemingly, went after a guy who was acting suspect.

"That is it, I'm gonna call him." Fuli said, and pulled out her cell phone. She was halfway dealing Kion's number, when Bunga said. "Look, there he is!"

His friends looked to where he was pointing, and they all saw Kion.

The lion seemed well, and he was still in one piece.

"Hey, Kion!" Bunga said waving at his friend, seeming not to mind if people around were going to stare at him. Kion looked back at him, and raised his hand in his direction.

The young lion walked to his friends, greeting all of them.

"Kion, where have you went?" Asked Fuli, looking at the young lion.

Kion looked at her for a few moments, and he said. "I... I was taking a walk in the mall and I... I think I got distracted."

"Well, you could have gave us a warning." Said Besteh. "We were starting to get worried about you."

"Yeah! We were starting to think that you had been kidnapped or something like that." Said Bunga, putting a hand around Kion's shoulder, as he was still having his famous smile on his face.

Kion smiled back, and Fuli said to him. "Kion, next time you are gonna to vanish like that, you better give us a warning before."

"Oh... right." Said Kion, looking at the ground, seeming to be a little embarrassed. Ono then said. "Well, since Kion is back and well, I think we should get going now."

"Yeah, that's right!" Bunga said, excited as always. "Next stop, snack station!"

His friends all rolled their eyes as they could not help but smile. Bunga was the kind of guy that didn't let anything put him down. That was one thing that they all loved about the honey badger. He was always looking at the bright side of things, and he was always ready to forget the problems and go on for something fun or for some grub.

Sure, his friends all agreed that a snack would be very good, and that mall had some of their favorite foods in there. So, they all went along, all of them quickly forgetting the troubles and what had just happened.

It was not hard. After all, someone getting lost in the mall and getting late to meet the friends was not something as serious. They all could easily forget it.

However, Kion couldn't.

After what he had been through in the last twenty minutes, there was absolutely no way in the world that he could forget what he had seen and heard.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_

"Millie what?" Kion asked to the wolf, who was still wearing the strange outfit that seemed to be one taken from a very fancy and fantasies musketeer movie. Actually, it almost seemed like these anime things, the Japanese cartoons.

The wolf smiled at him as he said it again. " _Millien Magi_." He looked at Kion as he said this. "It is Latin. It means something like: 'Magic Knight'. A magic warrior of shorts."

Kion stared at the wolf, unsure of what to do or say, or what to think, actually.

Sure, he imagined that there was probably an explanation to what he had seem. However, all of them involved him having hallucinations. Or maybe having lost his mind completely. Or that he was dreaming.

Kion looked at the wolf for a few moments, and he reached out and pinched his own arm.

"Ouch!" Kion said as he felt the pinch very well, and then, he nursed the place he had pinched, and he looked around. He was still in the mall's basement. There was still an entranced shark stading right next to him with that goofy smile on his face. And there was still a wolf, his history teacher, standing in there wearing the strangest outfit for a place like that.

Kion blinked as he looked at him, and he said. "Okay, so, it seems that this is not a dream."

The wolf looked at him for a moment, and he chuckled. "Yeah, I think everybody reacts a little like that when they first come in contact with all of this. Actually, you are taking it far better than many others."

Kion blinked at him, and he said, "But... what was that? What just happened? What where these things?"

The wolf smiled at the lion, and he said, "Yeah, the lots of questions usually come right after the shock." He seemed to be taking it a something pretty natural. As if he had already gone through all of it before. "Well, I think I can give you a little introduction by explaining what was that."

Kion looked at the wolf expecting an answer, and the wolf was quick to give it to him. "Well, what happened now was that this guy." He said, pointing at the shark. "Was lured here by a creature. You probably followed him, right?"

Kion looked at the wolf, and he nodded slowly. The wolf so continued. "Well, this creature seemed not to want you around, so it sent these lesser beings, lets call them 'minions', to get you. And I... well, I only did my job. The job of a Magic Knight. To fight and defeat these things, and to protect the innocent bystanders like you and your toothy friend here from end up in their clutches."

Kion nodded, though he was barely even registering what the wolf was telling him. His mind was still in a fuss with all that had happened in the last few minutes, and he was still trying to convince himself that it had all been for real.

"Well, it is really too much to take in a very short amount of time. I guess I'll need to explain better to you on another occasion, maybe tomorrow? Meet me after my class and I'll gladly answer all of your questions and more, okay?" Kion looked at him, and the lion nodded slowly. "Great, now I think you should go back up. I believe that there are people waiting for you, if I'm not mistaken?" The wolf asked, offering the lion a smile, and Kion nodded.

However, before going, he looked at the shark, who still had that same enthralled look on his face. "What about him?"

Howler looked at him, and after a moment, there was a brief flash of light, and suddenly, the wolf was wearing the same clothes that Kion had seen him using in the class earlier, normal clothes. For some reason, Kion didn't even got surprised by this. Maybe it had to do with all the things he had witnessed in the past minutes...

The wolf approached his face from the shark's, and snapped his fingers right in front of the walking fish's snout. No reaction. After a while, he approached his hand of him again, as if he was going to try snapping his fingers one more time. Suddenly, he moved his hand, and slapped the shark right in the face.

"Ouch! What? Who? When?" The shark cried out, looking to all sides, as if he had just woke up from a dream. He looked at Kion, and at the wolf. "W-Who are you? Where am I? How did I got here!?"

The shark seemed simply and totally lost, as if he didn't even knew what was going in there.

_He doesn't remember?_  Kion thought to himself. Howler looked at the shark, offering a smile, and he said, "Well, I believe that you might wanna go now."

The shark looked at him, and he asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm a creation of your own imagination." The wolf said with some humor "Now, I really think that you two should be going." And without saying another word, the wolf started to walk away, leaving the lion and shark behind, both slightly shaken, Kion clearly much more than the shark.

The two shared a look as they saw the wolf walking away, and when they tried to look at him again, the canine was no longer there.

* * *

_Back To Present..._

Kion had did what the wolf said, he had got out of there and back at the mall. The shark followed him, seeming not to remember what had transpired during the time that he was acting like that, as if he was under some kind of hypnosis, or some mind control? Kion didn't really knew what to think about all of that.

The sahrk was still confused to what had happened to him, for he had, in one moment, been into the music shop buying a new CD and suddenly he was into the basement of the mall, with two people that he barely even knew. He thanked Kion for leading him back to the mall and he went his own way, still trying to make sense of what was going on and, seemingly still trying to remember what had happened.

He could not remember, but Kion doubted that he was going to forget.

Now that Kion convinced himself that he was not crazy or having deliriums, he finally thought back at what Howler had told him.

Magic Knight...

What exactly did that meant?

Kion wasn't sure, and he didn't knew if he really wanted to know. However, he knew that, after what had happened in there, he just could not go back home, tuck in his bed and pretend that it never did happened. It had all been too real and too deep. He was almost killed and he was saved by his magic history teacher (Kion could not believe that he was thinking it seriously). There was just no way that he could simply ignore it all and pretend that it never happened.

As Kion walked with his friends, and as they all talked to him, Kion found it hard to pay attention to anything that they were saying, and he doubted that he could. The images of all he had went thought replayed in his head like a movie at each few seconds, and made him think about them.

Things like the existed? Where they real? If they were, then how no one knew about them? Who could people think that it did to exist when it really did? The government kept it in secret? Mr. Howler was some kind of agent from the government? And what was that place he had been? He had been transported? But that place didn't even seemed to be real... Okay, it  _seemed_  real, but not the real that Kion was used to... Gah! All of this was making his head hurt.

The words of the wolf replayed in his head like a record again and again. The things he said answered little to nothing. Actually, they only have him more questions, questions that he wanted to see answered.

The wolf had said that he would answer his questions in the morning, and Kion planned to do it.

Kion wanted to know exactly what was going on and what it was all about, and he was going to get answers.

* * *

In the next morning, Kion woke up even before his alarm clock. He bathed and went down quickly, and he quickly finished his breakfast and he went on his way to school, leaving behind his family, a little stunned as they never saw Kion in such a rush to go to school before.

Kion took the bus and greeted his friends, just like he did every single day, and they all spent time together talking and chatting about all kinds of things. However, his friends could easily notice that Kion didn't seemed as interested into the talk as he usually was. As if his mind was somewhere far away from them.

And indeed, it was.

Kion passed the rest of the day regularly, going to the classes along with his friends, but unable to trully focus on any of them, as he was just looking forward to the moment that he was going to see the wolf again.

At the lunch break, Kion told his friends that he was skipping lunch this time.

"But why?" Bunga asked, the lion, as if he could not understand why someone would need to skip something as important as the time of lunch.

"I need to go see Mr. Howler." Kion said, and his friends looked at him. "Is that... I... Have something I want to ask him about, and this might be the only free time he will have to talk to me." Indeed, it was true. Kion had took a look in the schedule and the lunch break was just after Mr. Howler's class that day, the time that he said that he could talk to Kion. The lion didn't liked losing lunch time, but he wanted answers about yesterday. And as time passed, he grew more and more anxious for them.

"What is it?" Asked Ono, and Kion said, "One thing about his class. Look, I really need to go now. I'll catch with all of you later, okay?"

His friends didn't quite understood his sudden interest into the new history teacher, but they understood that Kion wanted to be somewhere else then. By the way he talked; it seemed that it was really important. So, they all bid him by and agreed to meet later on after the end of class. So, as the four animals went on their way to the lunch, Kion was soon on his own way to Mr. Howler's room.

Kion took a while to find it, for he was not used to walk into that part of school, which had the rooms of all teachers and the principal. He was rarely sent in there, but he knew it pretty well to know that he should not walk inside the wrong room.

Luckily for him, it was easy to find, once Mr. Howler's name was written in the glass of his door. As soon as he found it, Kion stood in front of the door for a few moments, only looking at it, as if he was deciding if he should or should not enter.

He approached his had from the doorknob a few times, only to push it back, as he was wondering just what kind of answers he was going to find in there, and if he was going to feel glad to have them, or if he was going to deeply regret it. After a while, Kion finally decided it was enough. He hadn't come all the way in there only to be sacred in the last moment! He wanted answers to what had happened yesterday! And he was going to have them.

So, with a sigh, the lion raised his paw, and knocked the door.

"Is open!" The wolf's voice came from the inside after a few moments, and Kion knew that there was no turning back now. He grabbed the doorknob, and turned it, opening the door, and so, he walked inside.

At first, the room didn't seemed different from the one of any other teacher. It was big and furniture with a desk and a few chairs, as well as big shelves in the sides, filled with books. It was commonly colored, and by the first glance, there was nothing interesting about it. But Kion noticed a few things, nothing too strange, but things that stood apart.

In the windows there were hanged some pieces of paper with a very strange writing in it. Kion could not identify what it was, but it seemed to be ancient. There was also some other things in the shelves, like some strange-looking crystals, and also, a few statues of figures that Kion didn't recognized, but they all seemed to be ancient. Kion could also feel the slightly scent of smoke and also some kind of perfume in the air. It didn't took long for him to realize that it was incense. Also, looking over to the desk in which Mr. Howler was sitting in, he noticed that it had some of the charms in it, with some very interesting crystals in it, and also a figure of some creature. It looked like a Chinese dragon holding an orb, and there were incenses in it, all of the burning slightly as they spread smoke, with the perfume of it that spread through the room.

The wolf looked up as he saw Kion, he had glasses in his face. He smiled as he saw the lion. "Ah! Prideland." He greeted him. "I was wondering when you were going to show up. Come in. And close the door, please."

Kion knew that this was his last chance of turning back. Something deep inside of him told him that, if he wanted to quit, this could be his last chance. It was a feeling that his previous life was just outside that door, and that if he closed it with him inside the room, he would be somehow giving up on it forever.

But, Kion had gone to there, and he was not going to turn back now. So, Kion closed the door behind himself, and he walked inside.

"Come on, take a seat." The wolf offered to the lion, gesturing to one chair that was right in front of his desk. Kion nodded, and walked to him. Soon, he was sitting into the chair in front of the desk, now face to face with the wolf.

For a moment, they both sat there in silence, as the wolf was finishing to see some papers that he had on his desk. It took around five more minutes before he finally got it done with the papers, and he finally raised his look back at Kion. Giving him a kind smile, had crossed his fingers as he looked at the lion in front of him, and he said, "Well, as I promised today, I plan to answer all your questions, and I'm sure that you must have a lot of them. So, what do you wanna know first?"

Kion looked at the wolf in front of him. The one who literally held all the answers that Kion was most likely searching for. And indeed, Kion really had a lot of them. However, Kion didn't knew exactly where to start with it. There were many doubts in his head regarding what had happened the day before, and many of them only led to more questions, all of which Kion really wanted to see answered. The problem was, among so many questions, Kion didn't know which one would be the best to ask first in a situation like that... if that was even possible.

Howler seemed to notice that Kion was troubled, and he chuckled to himself, "Yeah, I think I was around the same way you are now when I passed by this the first time."

Kion looked at him, and the wolf looked at him. The canine got up from his table. "So many doubts and you don't know which one is the most important to be asked." He said as he walked to the windows and lowered the blinds of it, and made sure they were closed, which darkened the room a bit.

"You probably are wondering what is the meaning of all of that and how it all relates to me, right?" He asked, passing by Kion in direction to the door, and Kion was following him with his eyes all the time.

"And you want to know how I can do the things I've done, and what exactly were these things we fought, and the place we have been, and you want to know what was the thing that was calling and just what on earth was all of that." The wolf then lowered the blinds of the door glass and he locked it. "Ain't I right?"

He had a kind smile on his face, and Kion could not shake away the feeling that he was somehow being cornered. However, he didn't felt scared, for some strange reason (because any smart people would get scared by the way the wolf was acting and the things he was doing), actually, he was only more curious to know about the truth. So, the lion simply nodded, and the wolf walked to him.

"Well, then I think I should start from the beginning." The wolf said, stretching his hand, and Kion noticed a small glow coming from his finger. It was a ring. Looking intently, Kion could make out that it seemed to be made of silver, and it had a white gem in it. As the wolf came closer, however, the ring itself seemed that it started to shine brighter, until light erupted from it.

Kion gasped as he saw a line of light raised from the ring and focus on a dot of light in the middle of the air of the room. The dot stood in there, and then it expanded, and Kion almost fell of the chair as it suddenly was forming images.

"Okay, Kion, may I call you Kion?" He asked, looking at the dumbfolded lion, who simply nodded as he looked at what was being cast in front of him, and the wolf continued.

"First of all, you must know that this world, the one in which you and I reside, is not the only one that there is around. And I'm not talking about planets." The wolf said, and the image showed what seemed to be a great globe of the planet Earth. No, I think the more correct term for it would be planes of existence, or other dimensions, if you prefer."

As he spoke, the image seemed to be starting to expand, as if opening the close, and it was showing what seemed to be other planets Earth, all very close to each other, and some, actually seemed very different.

"As you can imagine, these worlds are other dimensions, other places around what we call 'the Multiverse', each one with its own laws of nature and physics, which don't need to necessarily be the same as here."

Kion nodded absent-mindedly, as he was simply hearing to what the wolf was telling him, now barely even minding if he was awake or sleeping, but he knew that he was not in Kansas anymore.

"So, these worlds, which are separated from your own, are home to certain creatures that live in there." He said, and the image showed different sceneries that didn't seemed like things of Earth, and there were creatures in it, different from anything that Kion had ever seem. "These kinds of creatures are... well, let's say that they are like spiders. Some of them are harmless and don't even fight back if you attack. Some are only dangerous if they think that  _you_  are dangerous. Some of them, however, see little creatures like us as flies. Do you get my point?"

Kion nodded once again, looking at some of the creatures that appeared like that, some which seemed nice, and others that looked like came out from nightmares. Some of them actually seemed pretty familiar to him, as he had already saw them on his own nightmare a few nights ago. And that was only to add one more item into the strange things that were happening to him and making his life be turned totally upside down.

"W-what are these things?" Kion asked as he looked at some that looked rather evil.

"Well, they have received a lot of name through the centuries." The wolf said, "They have been called Youkai. Evil Spirits. Pixies. Oni. But, in my opinion, I think the better word to describe some of them would really be the word demon."

Kion looked at the wolf, with shock on his face.

"Yes, Kion, believe it or not, demons are real, as are the fairies, and ghosts and many other things you might have heard about on tv and books. Many of these things are real, and some of the things from comicbooks and movies are based on real things."

Kion was dumbstruck by that, and he seemed unable to find words after hearing that. "W-what... B-but..."

Howler nodded "Yeah, I think a lot of people act like that. Yeah, some nightmares are actually pretty real." He said, and the image showed many dangerous creatures, all of them looking to be able to kill a person with little to no effort. Kion shuttered as he assimilated that things like demons and ghosts could exist. That opened window to many more questions that popped in his head, one of them in particular...

"T-that thing in the mall yesterday... I-it was..."

"Well, it was not exactly a demon, unless you want to call it that way." Said the wolf, "Actually, that was a Siren."

"Siren?" Kion asked, and the wolf nodded.

"Yes, a Siren, like the ones that appear for the Argons, you remember?" As the wolf spoke, the image changed to show some short of creature, which looked like a mix between a fish and a bird, and it seemed to have a very long hair, the face, however, seemed to be enveloped into some kind of darkness. It had a body and long and slender arms, and the body was covered by a long dress, which showed that the body was clearly feminine.

"The Sirens are beings that use their beauty and the power of their voices to attract men to them. They may look pretty when you look at them, but don't let yourself be fooled. They are pretty violent and strong, and they are all crazy of hunger for men flesh."

Kion shuttered as the wolf talked it in a dark way. "Good thing I was in there to help, otherwise she would probably have you both for lunch."

Kion shuttered once again, and next, he could not avoid some question that popped from his head right at that moment.

"But... if these things are real and if they are so dangerous, who come people all think that they don't exist?"

The wolf sighed, and he said, "These worlds, besides existing, were separated from each other by what we call 'The Veil'. It is like a barrier that keeps the worlds from mixing together, what would case their destruction." He explained, as it was back to the many earths, and now, there were lines separating one from the other. "These veils, besides keeping the worlds away from each other as if they were a safety net, has the side effect of preventing the worlds from being perceived by each other in normal ways, and for normal individuals. It also prevents things from leaking from there to here, like energies and creatures."

"The veil has existed ever since, and it is very hard to cross by regular means, and as a result, people don't know it exist, don't see what there is on the other side, and as most people don't believe if something exists unless they see it with their own eyes, then they assume that all these creatures simply are not real."

Kion nodded, yeah, actually, that made a lot of sense. "Still, in the old times, it was possible to cross the veil or see through it by the right ways. Some creatures passed from there to here and some passed from here to there." The wolf explained to the lion, "This is where came the legends of many secret places like Atlantis and places of the like, as well as the ones of Pagan Gods and beings that came from the other side to here."

"However, as time passed, people got scared at the other world, and so, they started to act with mistrust and even violence over it, to the point that they were violent with anything that could be considered supernatural. And with the coming of the bombs, and armaments and the mass destruction weapons, it makes quite some sense that the beings from there don't want the ones from here to find that they exist and try to slay them with their atomic bombs."

Kion nodded as the wolf said that, and it actually made a lot of sense. Kion had already saw enough movies to know that the army tends to bomb first and ask questions later. I mean, if you believed in everything that went on tv.

"That is the reason why the creatures tend to don't cross the veil that separates the worlds." The wolf continued, "And that is why they don't let mortals have clues of their existences, because if they did, then it would be harder for them, and also for us, by that matter."

Kion looked at him, and he said, "And, by  _us_  you mean..?"

The wolf looked at him, and he smiled, "The Magic Knights."

It was it, the question that Kion have been wondering since what happened in the previous day. The wolf seemed to know this, for he was now explaining. "As I already explained, some of these creatures were really dangerous, and as a result, they put the beings of this world in problems when they came here."

"That is the reason why appeared the first Millien Magi. People from here with great magic powers who fought the beings who came from outside and made sure that they could not harm innocent people from here. Basically, our job is to protect the world from a danger that they don't even imagine that exists."

"You may call us the cops from the supernatural world." The wolf concluded, as the image disappeared, and the room was left once again into a dim light, as the wolf walked to him, saying, "Though I personally, prefer the term 'secret defenders of the world', but everyone calls it as wanted. Our mission is the same."

The wolf had a kind smile as he said that, and he walked around the desk to sit back into his chair. Kion was left in silence as he took in that new information that was given... no, it was most likely that it was dumped into him. It was a lot to take in in a very short amount of time, and Kion was having to coup with all of it.

"If you want to deny and to walk away saying that it is stupid and that it is crazy, feel free to do so." The wolf said, "I did when I heard these words the first time. I think a lot of us already did."

However, Kion didn't felt like saying that it was stupid or that it was crazy, not after the things he had seen and passed through in the last twenty-four hours. Actually, everything that the wolf said sounded amazing, unbelievable, even, but after all that happened, it was the most reasonable thing that he had heard since yesterday.

And now, Kion felt himself urged to ask another question, this one moved by the things that the wolf had just recently said. "So... there are others like... like you?"

The wolf smiled at him, apparently because the lion was taking it very well, better than most people took, actually, and he continued. "Yeah, there are at least one in each big city, and some in smaller cities. I also met some that travel around from city to city, and it is not strange to hear about some that gather together and form teams. Anyway, there are Millien Magi all around the world. After all, the veil covers everything, and so, the creatures can appear in any part of the world. So, it makes sense that we are all around the globe, to make sure that people are not endangered by them."

Kion nodded, yeah, it was surely a lot to take. So, the supernatural creatures, like demons, monsters, mermaids, ghosts and God-knows-what-else were actually real, beings from other dimensions that came to the world to create havoc and chaos and to hunt on the mortals. And there were a group of people with magical powers that fought them up and saved the world from them called "Millien Magi" and his new history teacher was one of these magic people...

Kion looked over his shoulder, expecting someone to come out form a hiding place and say that he had fell for a prank, like the ones from television where they make you think that you have got rich or that you had blew up a building and then everyone comes out with the camera and everything and you laugh about it. However, this was not happening.

Kion already was convincing himself that whatever was happening was pretty real, and that it was for true.

"And... that place from yesterday..." Kion said, "That beach or whatever it was, it was another dimension?"

"Almost." The wolf said, "It was a barrier." Kion looked up at the wolf, who them spoke, "There are lots of different creatures, some of them are weak, and they can only lurk into the veil and into the nearby dimensions, however, some are pretty powerful. And, being powerful enough, they can call up the raw astral matter in the veil and use it to create their own 'demi planes', in which they can lure their victims and hide from the sight of the ones in this world while they watch it from close. We call them 'barriers'."

Kion nodded, and there was a brief silence into the room, before Kion spoke again. "So, you have magic powers?"

Okay, Kion knew that he was asking something obvious in there, for after the previous day, he had seem pretty clear proofs that the wolf had abilities that normal people didn't had. Still, the wolf seemed to be humored about it, as he chuckled, and he said, "We all have."

And he stretched his hand, and opened his paw at Kion, "Thanks to this."

Kion looked at the palm of his open hand, and he saw what seemed to have a brooch in it. It had silvery trimming and it seemed to be made of some white-colored gem, and it was shining lightly, as it was easy to notice that in the dim luminosity of the room.

"What is that?" asked the lion as he looked at the curious and shining brooch, and the wolf said. "It is a Power Gem." Kion looked at the wolf, as the canine continued to explain to the lion. "The Power Gems are the heart of our own magic. It grants us all of our abilities and it is the proof that we are Magic Knights, and that we have the responsibility of fighting the evil beings that came to this world to cause problem and protect the beings of this world against them."

Kion nodded, and he looked at the wolf, and he said, "And what about the musketeer outfit?" Kion was really curious about that, and the wolf actually laughed rather heartedly over that. "Yeah, that actually came with the gem, yah know, I guess is part of the package, if you can say so."

The wolf passed a hand over the gem, and it glow softly, and it let go particles of shining dust as it dissolved, and turned back into a ring, which was already into the wolf's finger. Kion looked at it surprised, and the wolf said, "And this way, it is easy to carry it around without calling much attention." He showed the lion the ring on his finger as he spoke that.

Kion nodded, looking amazed at the ring in the wolf's finger, which was the source of all his magic power. So, the wolf was part of a group that defended the world and who fought monsters in a daily base, as so it seemed. Okay, now that really was starting to look like something that came out form a super hero stories. Man, Bunga would really love to be in there to hear about all of this stuff.

"So... where did you got yours?" Kion asked to the wolf, and the canine smiled at him, and he said.

"Well, as you can imagine, they are not the kind of thing you can buy around the street." The wolf said, and he continued, "They are born from the contact of someone's own spirit with the power of the magic of another Power Gem. Basically, a Power Gem can only be created by another Power Gem. A Magic Knight can only be created by another Magic Knight."

Kion nodded as he looked at him. "Oh, you mean, like they recruit others?"

"Yeah, that is like it." The wolf said to the lion as he continued. "One of the basic abilities that come with being a Magic Knight is being able to feel the presence of another Magic Knights, as well as people who have the potential to be one."

"And, how someone has potential to be one?" Kion said, and the wolf laughed a little as he said that. "God, I wish I knew." The wolf said, as he looked at Kion and continued. "Many people say a lot of different things about this thing of 'potential' and how it actually works. Some say that the people are chosen by a greater force, others say that they are chosen randomly at all. Others simply say that, if we want, we can make anyone become a Millien Magi too."

"I personally, think that someone with potential needs to have a powerful spirit."

"Powerful spirit?" Kion asked, and the wolf continued. "Yes, it means having too much ability in your spirit, or being gifted in a particular way. Like being very smart, or being naturally strong, or being very brave or determined or fierce. Or maybe having a great trait of personality that makes you suitable to be a good Magic Knight and to take on the mission of defending people and fighting the monsters who wish to create chaos and destruction in this world. The point is that not everyone has this potential. Actually, it is pretty rare."

Kion nodded, it actually made sense. He just didn't expected what the wolf was going to say next. "Just like you, Kion."

The lion almost fell of the chair when he heard that. "What!?" Kion blurted out, his voice echoing in the room as the wolf seemed unfazed at him, and soon, the wolf was saying.

"Yes, Kion. I know that you noticed the way I looked at you yesterday." The wolf said that without any worry or as if it was absolutelly nothing strange. The lion looked at him as he spoke it. "I was looking at you because I could feel the potential that has inside of you. The potential to become a Millien Magi."

Okay, now Kion just knew that it had to be a joke! He was a  _Magic Knight_  or whatever? No! There was no way! There was no  _freaking_ way! He was just... Kion. There was no way that he could be someone who would fight monsters and do things like what the wolf had done in the previous day, he just couldn't!

"M-me?" Kion asked, looking at the wolf, and the canine simply nodded, "Yeah, you. And yes, I'm sure." The wolf finished, as if he could sense what would be that Kion would say next. "Anyone with a nose for magic can sense the potential someone holds for being a Magic Knight.

Kion looked at him for a few moments, and he said, "Y-yesterday... When the thing that was calling the shark... The Siren... I-it noticed me there and it became angry."

"She probably felt the potential you had to become a Magic Knight, and she probably wanted to use the chance to get rid of you before you could pose a threat." The wolf said, "Actually, it is more common than you think. Some creatures really don't like the Magic Knights, for one reason or the other, and they jump at a chance to get rid of them."

Kion was still processing all of that. He wasn't even one of them and he has almost been killed and shredded into pieces just because the thing that was in there thought that he had potential to become one? What if he actually  _was_  one!? What would it have done to him!?

The wolf looked at the lion, as he was seeming to have an internal debate with himself, and sighed, "Yeah, I pretty sure that I also had this face when they told me this. I guess this is the moment where many people turn around and leave, trying to pretend they have never seen anything and that all of that never happened."

Kion looked at the canine, as he continued, "Well, I can't really blame you, after all, not everyone wants this life." The wolf looked at Kion as he continued. "It is a hard job, and it demands you not only to risk your life every day, but also to make a great sacrifice at your own personal life. This is a kind of job for the whole life, and once you accept to make a part of it, you might never be the same. If you do it, you will have little time to your relationships and to yourself, and you will have to attend to the calling when it comes. It is a hard time, but it is needed, after all, someone needs to defend the world." The wolf looked at Kion, as if he could sympathize with the lion and his situation.

The lion, on his side, only stared at the wolf in silence as he took in what was just said, and he asked. "And you... want  _me_... to defend the world?"

Kion was at shock for this, so much that he barely knew how to react to all of that. However, it kind of made sense and would explain why the wolf seemed to take so much interest in him from the very first time they met. Actually, it also explained fairly well the things that the wolf said to him the day before, that about responsibility and about taking it or not, and about the things that he could do.

The wolf looked at him before smiling, and he said, "Yeah, according to our politics, the more of us around the better. So, if I found out someone with potential, like you, I was supposed to make the offer and then train you after you accepted." The wolf was saying it as if he was offering a job to the lion, like working as his assistant in the school or maybe cleaning things up, and not taking up some magic stone, being giving a flashy costume and fighting off monsters coming from other dimension to destroy the world.

The wolf had a kind smile at the lion as he spoke again, "After what you had been through, I should really insist for you to accept it and to become one of us. After all, you got pretty much pummeled in this world and I think now you should go with the flow."

Kion looked at him, as if he was thinking about his next decision. "Do I... Do I have a choice?" Asked the Kion to the wolf, and the canine nodded.

"Indeed, you have." The wolf said, "no one can get into this life without really wanting it. You can chose not to and to walk away from this world. However, I must warm you, if you do, then I cannot allow you to be free to tell anyone what you have seen." The tone in which the wolf said that was dark, and the suddenness of it made Kion gasp and take one step back.

But the wolf was quick to calm him down. "Relax, I'm not going to kill you, we don't do this kind of thing, we are the good guys, remember?" He offered the lion another kind smile at this, and he continued. "However, if you chose to decline I'll have to use the magic of my Power Gem to make a memory transference in you. It is one of the basic powers of the gem, it allows to wipe out specific parts of the memory of someone and replace them for a new set of memories. Basically, I'll make you forget about the supernatural things you saw and make you think that something else happened in their place."

This tranquilized Kion, and it also caught his attention as the prospect of him forgetting that all of that ever happened and going back to his usual life. It was really possible? It was really possible that he could be outside of that situation and don't even remembering that he had ever passed by it? Like a bad dream that he completely forgot soon after waking up?

The wolf seemed to notice that the lion took interest, and he said, "Yeah, it is possible to make you forget about that and remember something else in the place. I can replace your memories of following the shark to the basement and being attacked by the Siren in there for a curiosity of being in there and a boredom of having found nothing interesting. I can replace the memories of all that you seen and heard from me in this room be replaced by the memory of some discussion about your future career since I took a little interest in you. However, I'll only do so if you really want."

The wolf then looked at Kion dead in the eye, and he made the question that would most likely define all the development of Kion's future. "So, Kion, what is your choice?"

Kion knew what he was going to say, that he wanted to forget it and go back to his life. That he had no interest in risking his life fighting monsters, and that he just wanted to get away from there to get ready for his next class before it would start. However, as he opened his mouth to say these words Kion felt some doubts in it.

If he refused, then the wolf would fight on his own against these things... No! They were talking about risking being devoured by monsters! How he could even be considering accepting!? These things could have killed him!

Yes. They could.

Just like they could have killed the shark if Kion was not in there to save him. Also, they could kill another innocent bystander. Or they could kill anyone that was lured to there under their influence and would never come back.

Kion looked at the wolf, and for some reason, he asked, "These things... they are really that bad?"

"Some of them really are." The wolf said darkly as Kion asked that. "These creatures have their own motivations and agenda, and sometimes, it involves dealing straight with the beings of this world. Sometimes they want them for some kind of dark purpose, or want them as their servants, or want their life force to enhance their own powers. Sometimes they want to cause suffering and destruction only for the sake of it, or maybe even to satisfy their own needs, like feeding on someone or laughing at the cost of their tragedy."

Kion looked at the wolf, as he could take it very well by the way that the wolf said it that the situation was really a serious one. And the canine had not finished it yet, as he continued talking, "They are behind some events that happen around, like mysterious deaths and disappearing. Acts of violence without explanation and strange accidents that happen around and good people who suddenly start acting strange, freak out and act violent and evil seemingly out of no reason. Many of these things are work of these creatures."

"They really are dangerous, and if we let them do as they want around the world, then we would be pummeled into chaos and destruction. That is why the work of the Millien Magi is important, and that is why there is needed to have some of us around to protect the world. And that is why I'd like you to accept the job, but if you refuse, I understand."

Once again, Kion had on his reach the chance of giving it up. Of turning around, walking away, and leaving it all to disappear behind him without even letting a memory on its place. However, at that moment, many more things popped in his mind.

The idea of these things being let out in the loose to be able to do as they wanted with the city and with the people in it. People who were innocent and who had nothing to do with it.

But... He too didn't had nothing to do with it? He wasn't forced to take the offer only because the wolf was saying that he had the duty to do so because he got caught in the middle of it. After all, that shark also was caught in it, and he walked away calmly back to his life.

But, the shark would not have got out of there alive if it was not for the wolf, and neither would have Kion.

So what? He was going to take a job so dangerous only because he owned one to the wolf?

He didn't have the duty to do that. The wolf himself made it clear that Kion was totally free to choose what he wanted. He didn't have any kind of ties to the wolf and could very well refuse without having to worry about it. After all, he wasn't even going to remember owning the wolf one.

Still, his thoughts went back to the creatures that almost killed him.

What if these things attacked again? What if next time they went for someone he knew?

What if they went after his father? Or his mother? Or his sister? Or one of his friends?

The idea of what these creatures could do to them if they got them was a horrible thing, and it gave Kion a deep feeling of worry and fear in his heart, laced with the purest dread t a horrible feeling that it caused. He imagined what would happen if they were to be eaten or mauled because there was no one around to save them...

So what, Kion had the duty to do it because he felt worried? The lion wasn't even sure why he was considering all of the possibilities that would grant him to accept what the wolf was offering to him. He should already had refused and already be brainwashed by the wolf to forget all about that. Still, he somehow was having all these thoughts that somehow compelled to accept it, as if it was something really important that he should do. That he  _needed_ to do.

Kion didn't knew where these ideas were coming from, but then, he remembered his dream. The dream in which the wolf was almost being mauled over by these monsters, and he remembered the red figure and what it had said to him.

Okay, now it really seemed to be weird, as if the dream itself was making Kion consider the possibility of taking a great risk to fight monsters. Since when he gave so much attention to dreams?

However, all that had happened had left him shaken, and the lion was not sure anymore if that he had was really just a dream. It had been too intense and too real. Kion didn't even knew what to think anymore, and still, he was taking a long time to decide, as the wolf was noticing.

"Kion, your next class will start in about five minutes." The wolf said, but he was not trying to rush the lion to do something or to simply take a decision. It was more likely he just wanted the feline to know that he was taking really long to say an answer.

Kion noted it, and so, he kept thinking, for he knew that the decision he was going to take could very well define the rest of his life. It was to live a normal life, as if this thing had never happened, and leave the creatures like that to be fought by the people who were more ready for this, like the wolf?

Or should he accept the offer of the wolf, take the job of fighting these monster and protecting the world, but at the cost of taking the daily risk of being mauled and eaten by something that came out of a nightmare?

These two questions rang over Kion's head, and he knew that he had to choose one of them. He could only look to the wolf, as he opened his mouth to speak what was on his mind...

 

 

 


	5. Experience as a Millien Magi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kion is still unsure of what to make of the offer that Howler just made him. So, the wolf makes him a proposition...

"Where is Kion?" Fuli asked as she looked to the sides. It had been almost twenty-five minutes after Kion had went to Mr. Howler's office, having being called in there by him. The time for lunch as almost over now and there was no sign of their lion friend.

"He should be back by now…" Said Bestie, getting increasingly worried with Kion, and Bunga was quickly to tranquilize him.

"Relax, Big B, I'm sure that Kion is just having a talk with the teacher and that he will be back at any moment."

"A talk of almost half an hour?" Ono said, and he added, "Teachers usually don 't take this long talking with a student unless the subject is serious. You don't think Kion got himself in any trouble, do you?"

As he spoke that, Fuli's eyes traveled to Bunga, who looked back at her, and he said, "What?"

"Well, it would be not the first time that your pranks put someone other than yourself in trouble." Fuli said, somewhat annoyed, "And surely it would not be the first time that this someone is Kion."

That was, indeed, truth. Bunga made a lot of pranks around, and most of them ended up with someone getting into a teacher's or the principal's room, and it wasn't always Bunga, and when it was, he rarely went to there alone. Fuli could very well remember when Bunga, her, Kion, Bestie, Ono, and many other students were all called into the principal's office after Bunga nearly turned the lunch hall into a water park.

That was a difficult situation, and Fuli passed half of the following week grounded due to having been involved into a situation like that, even if she was only involved with that unintentionally, and she had actually tried to stop the whole thing. She had barely spoke to Bunga for the next two weeks after that.

"Hey, don't look at me!" Bunga said, and he added, "It is just the second day of school! I didn't did anything… yet…"

"Oh, please, once you got detention in the first day!" Fuli said.

"Hey! It was not my fault! I didn't knew that the bathroom would be flooded if I flushed down the roll of toilet paper!" Bunga said in his defense, and while he and Fuli discussed, Ono and Bestie could only share a look among themselves, and roll their eyes, as they knew that this was not the first time that these two discussed. Fuli had a difficult and serious personality, and Bunga was carefree and worriless, and that was a combination that would surely be volatile if you let it together for too long.

These kinds of discussions were actually normal among them, despite them both always continued to be good friends.

Ono looked to the side to escape from that sight, and he got surprised with what he saw.

"Hey! It's Kion!" He said, and all the eyes turned to him and then the direction he was looking at. Their lion friend was running in their direction, soon he was in there, and he said, "Sorry for taking long, Mr. Howler had a lot to say to me."

His friend were far from mad at him, and Fuli was the first to speak. "Never mind, we were just worried with you." She had a smile as she talked to him, but Bestie soon spoke.

"But… you took way too long. What Mr. Howler wanted to speak about?"

"Oh, that… He just wanted to talk to me a bit more about my future and my goals." Kion said, and his friends didn't noticed that he was kind of nervous.

"Kion, is everything okay?" Fuli asked, and Kion said:

"Huh, yes, it is… is just…" Kion looked to the side, and he said, "You remember that we had agree to go out bowling today? Well, I'll have to pass by it, I'll have to stay in school."

This surprised his friends.

"What? Why? Did Mr. Howler put you in detention?" Ono asked, and Fuli was soon giving another hard glare at Bunga, who quickly noticed and answered:

"Why you keep staring at me like that? I did nothing!"

"No! No, I'm not in detention!" Kion quickly said, and he cleared his throat, and he added, "Is just that, Mr. Howler offered me a job."

"A job?"

"What kind of job?"

"Well, he said that he could help me reflect better about my future and that I could help him at the same time. He offered me a job as his intern, you know, helping with his organization, doing stuff for him, noting his compromises, this kind of stuff." Kion said, and all of his friends looked at him as the lion spoke that.

"He hired you as his secretary?" Bunga asked, and Ono said:

"A teacher hiring a student as intern is not very common."

"Yeah, he said that I needed to think a little more about my future and about my career, and he said that having a little experience as his intern would help me think better about it."

His friends all shared a look, and Fuli said, "Kion… Don't you think that maybe he was saying that to convince you to work to him for free?"

It was a valid question. Being an inter was something that poorly paid, or not paid at all, and it was common that people offered the "experience" of being an intern to other people in order to get someone to do work to them for free. In fact, Fuli failed to see how being an intern for the history teacher would help Kion with his future.

"I think it might be good." Bestie said, the others looked at him, and he cleared his throat. "I mean, we all have to get a little experience into a job sooner or later, and it is not always something glamorous, but a job is a job. The important is that you gain some experience from it and that you get introduced to what working is like."

There was a brief silence, and Ono then said, "I agree with Bestie. Having a job helps you develop responsibility and knowing how to do certain things, like working with deadlines and compromises, it is good for your development overall, even if it is about something that you might not follow career into. Actually, I was really thinking about finding a job as an intern myself, Mr. Howler is still searching?"

"Well… it is not a sure thing yet." Kion said to his friends, "Actually, today is more like a test. I'll spend the afternoon working with him, and depending on what goes on, I might stay as his intern or we might forget the situation."

His friends all nodded at him, and Bunga said, "But, this means you will have to spend the days working for Mr. Howler?"

Kion looked at him, and he said, "Well, I'm not sure yet because we still haven't decided. We'll just try out this experience and if it works out I'll decide if I will or not take the job as his intern."

Bunga was about to ask for something else, when the signal rang, letting everyone know that the lunch break was over and that they should all rush to their next class. This put an end to the conversation that Kion was having with his friends, and Kion was actually glad for this. Soon he and his friends were gathering their stuff and all moving in direction to their next classes, and he was able to hear Bunga complaining that work would take too much of Kion's time, and that he would have no more time to spend with them. Fuli was soon asking him to let it go, while Ono and Bestie discussed the importance of having the first experience in a job.

Kion barely listened to them, as he had gave them a lighter version of the things. Kion still could remember perfectly well the thing that had lead him to give that version of facts to his friends…

* * *

_*FLASHBACK*_

_"This… this is all so hard to believe…" Kion said, as Mr. Howler continued to look at him, and the lion continued._

_"I mean… I know it is truth, but… it is all so strange and so sudden. And, the idea of risking my life… But… I do want to protect people." Kion said quickly, and Howler looked at him as he spoke that._

_"My dad always told me that I had to make sacrifices to protect people, and that risking my life was one of them." Kion sounded confident as he spoke that, and Howler continued to look at him, a small smile forming in his lips._

_"But…" Kion continued, and he said, "I don't think he had fighting with monsters in his mind when he spoke that. It was clear that he was still unsure of what to decide. He was into an inner struggle between accepting the offer and fighting to protect people, or refuse and go back to his normal life._

_Howler felt sympathy for the lion, and after a while, he made a small decision._

_"Well, what about we make with you the same agreement that I made with my teacher when he called me for this job?"_

_"Huh?" Kion looked at him as he said that with that same smirk in his face._

_"I too was indecisive when I was first invited to become a Millien Magi, so, my teacher proposed a little thing to me." Howler explained, "He proposed that I would company him while he went on a mission, as a watcher, of course, in order to see what the job of a Magic Knight was like, and then I would decide if I would accept or not."_

_Kion looked at him as he explained that, and after a while of silence, he spoke, "You… want me to go with you while you hunt a monster?"_

_Howler could notice the hint of fear that was into the lions voice, and he quickly said, "Don't worry, I can protect you." He said, "I'm going after that siren that tried to get you and the shark, after all, she is still around right, I need to find her and take care of her before she hurts someone else. But don't worry, I can assure that I'll protect you. I have been doing this for years, and I can already be called a professional."_

_The way he talked was almost as if he was inviting Kion to a stroll around the city, and Kion was not sure of what to think about it all. Part of him still wanted to simply refuse it all and go back to his normal life. Let Howler do whatever he needed to do to wipe away the strange things that he saw from his memory and make his life normal once again, so he could go back to all that he knew._

_Still, somehow, something inside of him was telling him that he could not turn back now. He had entered into a world that he wanted to see more. Maybe it was just a wicked sense of curiosity, but it was still in there. It combined with that confident and kind smile in the face of that wolf, and that made him think about the offer, ignoring the fear and the danger that could possibly come of this kind of thing. This filled him with a sense of near safety, and he looked at the wolf as he made a decision that he might even regret later, but something inside of him told him that it was the answer that he should give:_

_"I… I'm not… okay!" Kion said finally, Howler looked at him curiously, and Kion said, "I'll go with you, to see what is like to be a… Magic Knight, and to see what I would expect if I do decide to become one." Kion said with a confidence that he didn't thought that he should have in a moment like that. This surprised him and Howler both._

_The wolf looked at him for a while, before he let out a heartedly laugh, as if he had heard something kind of funny. Kion could only look at him, as the wolf looked at him, still chuckling a bit, and he said:_

_"Kion Prideland, you really are like a younger version of myself." He said, and Kion didn't knew how to answer that. Howler simply said, "Well, since that is settled, I guess you can go back, but you got to be ready." He walked to the lion, and placed a furred hand in his shoulder._

_"Today you will have your first practical lesson about the jobs of a Millien Magi." He spoke, and he was serious as he spoke that, "You are probably going to see some things that would make people older than you go insane." He spoke that in a serious tune, but he still had that smile that said that it was all going to be okay._

_"Ooookay?" Kion said to the wolf, who only patted his shoulder, "You better be going." Howler said, "You don't want to be late for the next class." The lion nodded, and he finally was going on his own way, exiting the room and leaving the wolf behind in that._

* * *

As Kion was heading to his next class, his mind was still running a thousand miles per hour. He was barely even hearing the voices of his friends, who were walking by his side, for his mind was too much absent into the subject of the "Millien Magi" and the idea that, in that same day, he was going out with his teacher to hunt for a monster.

Kion was still trying to take a grip into what had happened, and he was still trying to know if that had really happened. The past events had been very strange to him, almost like it was some kind of action movie that Kion watched. On the other hand, maybe horror would be a better theme for this situation. However, the young lion had already convinced himself that it was not a movie, and neither it was a dream or an hallucination. It was very much real, and it was his life.

He was really going to hunt for a monster…

"Fuli?" Kion said as he turned to his friends, and the cheetah looked at him as he had spoke to her.

"You still have access to the gym's equipment?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There is any chance that you can get me a bat?"

* * *

The day passed rather quickly after that, with Kion having several mental images in his head of what would be like go around the town hunting for monsters. Images that went from Howler crossing the skies on his flashy costumes to lurking into the dark like the ninjas.

Still, Kion was sure that he should be ready to anything that could come. He was not sure of what to expect, so he expected pretty much anything.

Kion was actually surprised when he heard the last signal, for he barely noticed that the time had passed at all. He knew that it was afterschool, the time that he agreed to have this "experience" with the new teacher.

He briefly met with his friends, and apologized to not going out with them as they had agreed. Bunga was still complaining to no end, and the others had the feeling that it was going to make the whole trip far less enjoyable.

Fuli, attending to Kion's request, brought to him a baseball bat. She found it rather odd, but she complied with the request that her lion friend made, and she only recommend him to return it in two days or less.

Kion nodded, and soon, his friends departed, and the lion was on his own way, once more, in direction to Mr. Howler's room.

He met him exactly as the wolf was getting out of his office, and they both met.

"Hello, Mr. Prideland." The wolf said, and Kion nodded at him, and the wolf said, "Ready?"

Kion knew that it was his last chance of turning away now, and he felt tempted to do so. However, still had something in the back of his mind that pushed him in direction of that which his rational mind told him that he should avoid at any cost.

So, Kion simply nodded, and the wolf nodded back at him. And so, they both started to walk into the same direction, with the wolf head, leading the way. None of them talked until they both reached Howler's car, and they both seated their belts. Howler ignited the engine and soon the car was on the road, and driving rather calmly as they both continued in silence. Howler still had that soft smile in his face, which almost seemed to be a natural part of his features.

The continued with silence for five minutes, before Kion finally decided to break the silence. "So… I brought this." He said, showing the baseball bat that Fuli gave to him, Howler simply looked at it briefly without saying anything, before turning his head back to the road. "Think it will be useful?"

"Maybe." Howler said as he continued with his eyes on the road. "But it was a good initiative of yours." He said, ad once more, there was silence, before Kion said.

"So… where do we start into this 'monster hunting' stuff?"

"Well, we usually start in the place that we know that the target has lastly been." Howler said as he continued to drive. "In this case, the mall."

As he said that, Kion was starting to recognize the path that the wolf was taking. Soon, the mall was in their sight, and they stopped in front of it with the car.

Kion expected the wolf to get down of the vehicle, but instead, the canine only stood there with the car. As he looked at Kion, he said, "If the creature you are fighting manages to escape, or if you are only going after it  _after_  it has already left, it is very important to know the last place that the creature was, so you can calculate where it could go next." He spoke, as if he was giving one of his lessons back in school.

"So, lets go back to the mall." He said with a smile, as he started the car and was about to start driving, leaving the parking area of the school.

Kion looked at him. The wolf was acting very casual, considering that right now they were in their own way to go hunting for monsters. He had mentioned that he had done it for years; maybe he just got very used to it?

_Will I be like that if I spend years doing this?_  Kion asked himself, as Howler started the car, and he started to drive away from the school.

* * *

 

It felt kind of strange to be into the mall again after what happened into the day before. The idea that there was a magical creature in there that could have killed him and that shark, and that no one else knew about, was something that made Kion feel very unease. It really felt like something that had come out of one of Bunga's beloved comic books and video games.

"The last place our siren has been." Howler said as they were both still inside the car, and the wolf was looking at the mall. The wolf raised his hand, and the ring in it started to emit a soft glow.

Kion looked curious at it, and the wolf looked back at him, and he said, "One of the abilities of the Power Gem is to sense and detect sources of magical energy, which include supernatural creatures that are in this plane. The Power Gem can feel their particular vibrations and even track them, as long as their track is fresh.

Kion nodded at him, and the wolf continued, "Following the track can be somewhat tricky, and you need some focus and also some luck to be able to follow it for long periods of time. Considering that the creature has not gone far."

Kion nodded again, and then, he asked something that he really felt like asking.

"Hmm, Mr. Howler?"

"Yes?"

"Couldn't you have chased the siren yesterday?"

The lion looked at him with smart eyes, and he chuckled, and said, "Indeed, I could, and I did. As soon as I saw that you and the shark were okay, I went hot into her tracks, but I lost it after a while."

"Oh!" Kion said, and now he looked confused, "But… if you already lost her, then why we-?"

"So I could explain to you the importance of knowing the place where the creature had been." The wolf explained to him. "So you could truly understand what it mean to be a Millien Magi, and so that you would know exactly what you are meddling into if you decide to accept my offer."

Kion nodded slightly. Yeah, he could get it. The wolf was teaching him the basic of the basic, and there was no way that Kion could criticize him in any way for that.

"But… since you lost track of the siren's magic… (I don't believe I just said this seriously) how do we find it?"

Howler looked back at him, and smiled as he asked, "How do detectives and cops find their culprits?"

Kion knew that answer, and he said, "By following clues and leads." He said quickly, Howler seemed to approve it, and he said:

"We do pretty much the same thing. If we want to find a creature, we search for the leads and clues that could take us right to it." He said with that smile, and Kion soon was finding himself somewhat relaxing, and Howler said, "And I think I already know where to find our first lead…"

As he said that, he started the car again, and he started to drive away from the mall, and back into the road.

He drove for around a few minutes, going deep into the city, and stopped into a corner that was somewhat away from the residential buildings, and the place seemed to be somewhat the kind of place that shady individuals would frequent. Howler stepped out of the car, and so did Kion. The lion looked around.

"What are we doing here?"

"We are about to talk to a source." Howler said, and he gestured for Kion to follow him.

"Another Millien Magi?" Kion asked, and Howler simply chuckled as he walked forward, with Kion following him. "Just try not to be scared by him." He said as they walked into an alley.

As soon as they walked inside, Kion felt like a bucket of cold water had been dump into him. A chill ran his back and to the tip of his tail, making all the fur on his spine stand to end. He immediately had the feeling that they were not alone in there, and Kion had this feeling that it was something that you would not find on your everyday stroll into the city.

They walked into the alley, which was desert and the place was somewhat dark, despite being the middle of the afternoon, and Howler walked around with Kion by his side as if he had already come to that place in a regular basis.

"Dirty… far… dark… smelling like decadence…" Howler said as he walked into the alley. "Exactly the kind of place he likes to stay…" He said to himself, and Kion knew instinctively that he was talking about his "source".

The wolf walked in, with the lion following him from behind, the wolf looked around, and he said aloud, "Ragtir!" He said, as he looked around, and he called again. "Ragtir! Come out, we need to talk!"

Kion looked at him as the wolf looked around, and as he did, Kion again felt like something was looking on them. This time, however, he felt like it was closer, and like it was creeping around them. Kion turned his head around, looking at the sides, as if he was expecting to see something jump out of the shadows of the brick walls and jump over them.

Howler noticed it, and he looked at the lion, "So, you can feel his presence, can't you?" He asked at the lion, as if he was asking something that he already knew the answer.

Kion looked at him, and was about to ask what he meant, when he heard a voice saying, "Who is this you brought with you, Howler? Some little friend? Or is he a small snack that you brought to me?"

Kion almost had a backlash at his neck as he twisted his head to all sides, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming. As he looked, Kion suddenly had the feeling that the ambient around him was getting darker, as if the shadows were getting more intense. The lion was very surprised by this, the wolf, on the other side, was just as calm as he could be, and he looked around, and he said, "He is my new apprentice, or better saying, my possible new apprentice." He looked to the sides, as he too seemed to be trying to pinpoint the place where the voice was coming from, "We are in the middle of an experience…"

Kion looked at Howler, as the voice came again, first as a chuckle, and then as words once more. "He is rather young… You guys always pick the younger ones, don't you? It is easier to mold them to be like the rest of you…"

"We came here to talk with you about a thing." Howler said, looking around, "It is important, so could we please cut this out and you can just take us in? I pretty sure that it would be a bad idea we talking out here, where someone could just walk on us. It would be hard to explain and would cause a lot of problem, don't you agree?"

There was no verbal answer this time, but after a few seconds, Kion had the very familiar feeling that the ambient around him was distorting. It was just like the mall, and this time, Kion had the feeling like the shadows around were growing in size and darkness, and engulfing them as the space distorted.

It lasted only a few seconds, and then, Kion saw himself into a very different place.

It looked like the inside of some of these old antique store, with some old decoration, like rugs into the floor, and some painting into the walls, and even a lot of shelves into the place, holding several items. However, a quickly glance at that place was enough to know that this could not be a regular store, starting by the fact that the rugs into the ground seemed to be made of shadows, which constantly shifted and altered their shape.

Kion stood there, a bit stunned by this sudden change, and he looked around as he tried to make a sense out of the place that he was in, and as he did, he felt a creep down his spine, right before he felt what it seemed to be a hand laying on his shoulder.

Kion's head slowly turned to look at the direction the hand was coming from, and he saw a creature looking back at him. It was at least three feet taller than him, and it had an appearance that was somewhere between a bird and a bat. The body was sleek and almost seemed fragile, and it was black as the night. The head looked like the one of a bird, including the beak that was like the one of an eagle, crowned by a three pairs of bat ears. The eyes were fixated in Kion, and they were pure red in color with black pupils, which both looked like seven-pointed stars.

Kion gasped when he saw that creature, and took a step back, escaping from the creature and taking his hand to the hilt of the bat he was carrying, as if he was ready to use it to defend himself.

By seeing this, the creature let out a chuckle as it looked at him, seeming amused by his acting.

"You just don't waste a chance, do you?" Howler asked, seeming annoyed as he looked at the creature, and it looked back at him, before saying.

"Oh, sorry about that John, I just can't help it. Scaring you mortals is just too much fun!"

Howler sighed, apparently in resignation, and he turned to the lion, "Kion, I'd like you to meet Ragtir." He said, introducing him to the creature before him. The lion only looked at him, as he seemed to be at loss of words. The creature only looked back at him with a smirk on its beak, as if expectantly, and Kion slowly raised his other hand.

"N-nice to meet you…" Kion said, with his hand stretched, but the other was still holding firmly at the bat on his back.

The creature let out a screeching laugh, and said, "Howler, this one is a nice one."

Howler shrugged, and he said, "Well, I guess that are some that take this quite well. Kion is actually doing a lot better than I expected. Well, better than I did during my first day, at least."

The creature nodded, then reached out for Kion's hand, and took it into a grip. Its hand was leathery, and yet strangely insubstantial. It was big and had four long fingers that ended into white claws. It slowly shook Kion's hand, as he said, "Well, I really glad that Howler here has found someone who is actually a nice fella. I am also glad that you are not one of the ones that scream when you see me. After all, John surely told you what I do with the ones that scream…" He added with a dark smirk.

"W-w-what do you do with them?" Kion asked, but Howler quickly intermitted.

"Don't mind him Kion, Ragtir things the expressions of fear and shock of anthros to be very amusing, so he tries to scare us in every chance that he gets." The way he talked, it seemed that it was an annoying habit, and the creature only chuckled, before letting go of Kion's hand and turning his attention back at Howler.

"You make such funny faces in these moments, how can I possibly resist the temptation?" He asked, and he approached the wolf, Kion noticed that the creature, named Ragtir, seemed not to have a lower body, as it seemed to be just a spiraling mass of misty shadow. "So, what can I do for you today, Mr. Howler?"

"Yesterday I just had a problem with a siren." Howler said to Ragtir, as if it was a topic of a casual conversation, Kion only looked at the two as they talked. "I tried to track her, but lost her tracks after a while. She is still around, that much I'm sure of, and she might try something again, and next time I might not be around to stop her. So, I was wondering if you would, by any chance, have any hint that would help me find her."

Ragtir once more chuckled, and he said, "Perhaps, maybe I have. But before I say it, do you have anything for me?"

Howler sighed, and he reached into his bag, he searched in it for a few moments, and he pulled out a small snack box, like the ones that came from fast foods. The shadow creature seemed to perk all of its ears as it looked at it, and Howler opened it.

Kion could barely get a look inside, but it seemed to be filled with what seemed to be hundreds of small gelatinous globs.

"Eggs of feral frog." Howler said, "Courtesy from the science department of W.D. High. They have some females that lay eggs into this time of the year, but very few males. Most of them are unfertilized and end up going to waste, luckily, I can save some, I know how much you love those."

Ragtir chuckled to himself as he approached it, and took a deep sniff of the eggs. He licked his chops at it, and he tried to pick one with his long and skinny hand, but Howler quickly pulled it away from his reach, and he simply eyed him with a knowing smile.

The creature nodded, and said, "A siren, yes, I guess I heard some talking going around about one that had just arrived. Sneaking into the dark corners of the city, trying to find nice young male mortals to feast upon… They say she is quite the radical, and that she is crazy, even more than our regular sirens." As he spoke, he walked around the place, and he seemed to be looking at the shelves.

"I heard that she wants to have some males so she can take with her back to her land, and to share them with her sisters as snacks, and maybe slaves. Kind of creepy, if you ask me, after all, you mortals should stay in here, in your own world. Don't take me wrong Howler, you guys are quite adorable, but there is no way I would want the risk of some of you running free all over my world."

"Yeah, I get it." Howler said, seeming very calm, but Kion, on his side, felt a little insulted from this. That creature was, basically, talking about them as if they were cute feral animals that were nice to look at, but were way too impractical to have in home as pets.

"Anyway, I heard that she was very pissed yesterday, for she had a meeting with a Millien Magi that cut off her fun." He said, as he looked at the shelves, and removed something from them. "Now, I heard that she is somewhere north of the city, near water, you know how they love water, don't you? She is in there plotting how to get back at that Millien Magi that screwed her meal, and also trying to find a way to bring forth more mortals to her, so she can see her plans fulfilled."

He walked back to Howler as he said that, carrying what seemed to be a small glob of blue gel. "I heard that she has quite some tricks, some even say that she got into an alliance with some dangerous individuals." He talked to Howler, as he offered him the glob of blue gel. "This might prove to be useful, if you want it."

Howler looked at him, and he nodded, and picked it from the creature's hand. It passed to his hand easily and without leaving any residue. The creature kept his open hand open and stretched as Howler picked the glob, and looked at him as if expecting something.

Howler knew exactly what it was. He deposited the box containing the unfertilized feral frog's eggs into the creature's hand, who gave a shadowy smile back to him.

They nodded to each other, and Howler turned around to walk back to Kion, who had been watching and hearing all that was happening, and was now looking slightly dumbfounded.

The creature then said, "Howler…" The wolf stopped by Kion's side, and turned around to look at the creature, who was smiling at him. "This boy you found is pretty interesting. I guess I will hear a lot about him in the future. If he chooses to stay in this life, I mean."

Howler looked back at him, and simply nodded with a smile, "Yeah, I'm sure you will."

With that said, the creature raised its hand and snapped its long and skinny fingers. Immediately, the area started to distort around them once more, and after a few seconds, Kion and Howler were both back into the alley, and everything seemed perfectly normal.

Kion blinked, as looked around, and then at the wolf, who was casually looking at the gelatinous glob on his hand with a slightly smirk. Kion's expression was one that one could read as: "what the heck just happened?"

Howler looked at him, and chuckled, "Yeah, I made that same face during my first day." He said to the lion, as he put the globe of gel inside the pocket of his jacket, and he said to Kion, "Remember when I said that some creatures were more amiable than others? Well, Ragtir is one of these creatures. He is an umbral, a creature of shadows. They can be quite dangerous if you push their buttons, but most of them are not the kind that start fights, Ragtir is one fine example of a traditional umbral, just wants to stay on his corner and mind his own life." Howler said, "So, these harmless guys can just be let be, and as you saw, some of them are actually quite helpful, if you give them a good incentive. So, let's go?" He said, as he started walking, and Kion took only a second before rushing alongside the wolf, casting one last glance back at the alley from where the meeting had occurred as they left it behind. There was absolutely no sight of the supernatural event that Kion had just witnessed in there, and no proof that it had actually happened, and that Scared the young lion…

"So… these umbrals… they are completely harmless?"

Howler chuckled, "I wouldn't say completely. After all, they are quite stronger than they appear, and they have some tricks up their sleeves. In fact, if an umbral was mad or felt threatened it could easily kill most of the adult anthros rather easily. However, they are, in general, pacific and don't go searching for fights. Besides, each one is each one; an umbral is not like the other, just like a lion is not like the other."

Howler unlocked the door and entered the car, and do did Kion right behind him, and as he buckled his belt, he continued, "Ragtir is an example of an umbral that is very much what you expect of them: he is calm and will only fight if he sees no other option. I met him when I first moved to the city, and soon I saw that he was a calm fella and that he didn't meant harm. So I let him be, and I'll continue to do so as long as he does not threatens or harms anyone."

Kion nodded. It surely made a lot of sense; after all, the creature had done nothing wrong.

"And what if it…"

"Him." Howler corrected him.

"Oh! Right… what if he starts to hurt people?" Kion asked, looking at the wolf, who cast a glance at him as the lion talked, "Will you…" Kion hesitated, and he passed a finger over his neck, making a rasping sound.

Howler only looked at him, and he asked, "It is really what you think I do?"

Kion was a bit surprised by the way that he said that. "Uhh, yeah? I mean, in the mall, with these things that attacked me, you did…"

Howler looked at Kion, and he chuckled softly, "Kion, have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons?"

"What?" Kion asked, confused by this sudden divergence of topic, and Howler explained.

"One of the aspects of the game is the one of creatures that came from other planes of existence, like demons, elementals, and other summoned creatures. When they are attacked in the game, they suffer damage like any other creature, however, if they hit zero HP, instead of dying, they are send back to their home plane."

Kion looked at him as he finished the explanation, and the wolf said to him, "In real life is something very similar. When a creature crosses the veil and come to our world, they are still tied to their own world. So, if they suffer anything that would kill them, instead they are hurled back to the place they originally came from." Howler smiled at him as he finished, "Basically, it is like we are people from immigration. If the ones that travel to our world desire to live here in peace and not to cause trouble, then they are free to stay for as long as they want, but if they start hurting innocents and creating chaos, then we deport then back to their original world."

Kion heard every word he said, and he nodded in acknowledge. This made a lot of sense, and actually, now that Kion could stop to think about it, it was far better than killing.

"So, these things we fought are still alive?"

"Probably." Howler said, "I send them back to their home, and once in there, they are on their own. This is what I'm telling you, Kion, a creature can only be truly killed if it is on its own world."

Kion nodded at him, and then, the wolf started to car, and he said, "So, Ragtir said that the siren is somewhere north of the city and near water. I guess I have to go look for her now, right?" He turned to Kion, and he asked, "So, would you know that any great amount of water in the north part of the city? I mean, after all, you know the city way better than me."

Kion looked at him, a bit surprised by this. Kion had now to stop to think a little.

Well, the north of the city was a place that had many business places. It also had many places in there that were famous for their touristic nature, like the old library, or the great buildings... or the lake!

"There is a lake in the north of the city!" Kion said immediately, and Howler looked at him as he explained. "The lake is part of a river, and it was part of the foundation of the city. It is a very popular place, and some people actually go in there to swim and to expend some time into the water or into the nearby park."

"Sounds like a very inviting place to a siren that is searching for some anthros as prey." Howler said, as he started to drive.

The trip would take a while, and so, Kion decided to use this time to ask another question that has been bugging into his mind.

"Huhh, Mister Howler? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Kion." The wolf said, "You can ask me anything you feel like asking."

"Does that creature… Ragtir, he really lives in the city? It is only him, or there are more?"

"As I said, as long as a creature does not creates trouble it is allowed to live peacefully in this world. Quite some creatures decide to come and stay in this world, either for a one-day visit, or to stay for a longer time, sometimes even for life. Anyway, these creatures all know the rules for staying, and they also know that it is a bad idea to risk being seen, so most of them stay along the astral plane."

"Astral plane?"

"Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" Howler asked him, and in fact, the term "astral plane" was something that was highly recurring into the themes regarding fantasy. "The astral plane is real. It is a world that is superimposed into this world, here and not here at the same time, so to speak."

The wolf continued to drive as he made a turn and drove down the street heading to north. "The astral plane is mainly composed of astral mists. Mists that can be controlled and used to create matter, or what it seems to be matter. This way, is possible to use the astral plane to create new kinds of environments and places. This is the way that creatures that come to our world can create their barriers, by controlling the astral vapors and molding them into a new place where they can stay and hide."

Kion nodded, "So… all the creatures can control the astral plane?"

"Not necessarily." Howler said as he drove. "Controlling the astral plane is not something that anyone can do at any time. However, it is rather simple, if you know the right magic or has the access to the right equipment. Since crossing the veil is difficult, the ones that do so usually already have access to strong magic, and so, they have no difficulty into molding the astral plane. Some creatures have more facility to it than others, but it is not very hard. I heard that even some Millien Magi are able to do so with their own magic, to create their own 'astral operation base', but it is not simple, it consumes time and magic."

"And they can do whatever they want to it?" Kion asked, getting more and more interested into the subject.

"It depends." Howler said, "The astral plane is amorphous by nature, but it tends to resist to outside manipulation. There is a limit to how much you can actually change, determined by the power of your magic and your own skill. You saw that Ragtir's place was somewhat small? It is because he can only manipulate it enough to control a limited space, as most creatures do. However, there are many powerful creatures out there, they can control the ambient around them to great extends, creating barriers that vary in size from a small city block to a whole city."

Kion nodded, and so, the trip continued. They took around forty minutes, following the traffic (Howler had some difficulty navigating, for he was still recently moved to the city and still didn't knew it completely, so he had to rely a lot on Kion to give him directions), in order to arrive into the park.

Known as the Foundation Park, being name that way because it was the first place that the few colonists came when they first arrived into the new land, and where they first settled their camping to stay, which later became a village, which later evolved into the city that today existed. It all started into that great lake in there that was part of a great and long river, which started into the snowy mountains of the north, went all the way to the lake, and later continued in direction to the ocean, cutting that part of the city from east to west. It was a very popular place, with the lusty-green grass and the pavements for people to walk on it, and it was nested safely very near the lake, where some people would like to stay to help them calm, and even to take a dip into it. The lake had a very good maintenance, and it was permitted to bath in it, as long as you didn't made anything to the lake and didn't polluted it in any way. The lake was also a popular place for fishing, once it was full of feral fish that people came to try to catch.

Kion and Howler both stopped into the parking lot and exited the car, as they looked into the place. Kion had been there a time or two, and Howler, well, it seemed that it was his first time in there, and he took a time to admire the view.

"Wow! What a nice place." He said as he looked at the blue lake, which shone in the afternoon sun. "I should have come here sooner."

Kion was still amazed on how natural he was taking things, considering that they were currently on mission to hunt a supernatural creature. The wolf seemed to noticed it by the way that Kion looked at him, and he chuckled, "What, you expected me to be all serious about this and don't even look around?"

Kion looked at him for a few moments, and then wolf said, "Well, I suppose that there are certain Millien Magi who are like that, but I'm not one of them." He was smiling as he said that, "I try to take a break from this when I have a chance, to only look around, pass my time, and enjoy the little things. When you are always busy fighting some creatures that want to eat anthros, you need some small break from time to time. At least that's what I think…"

Kion looked at him, and he was not sure if he agreed with that or not, and Howler soon broke the line of thinking, as he said, "Well, I guess we can enjoy it later. Right now, we have to catch a siren." He looked around, and gestured for Kion to follow him.

The lion and wolf started to walk around the park, as if they were exploring it. Howler showed particular interest into the areas near the lake, and as he did, Kion noticed that he occasionally had eyes for his ring.

They spent around twenty minutes doing it, until Howler stopped. Kion looked over, and he could swear that he was seeing the gem on Howler's ring starting to shine, and it was blinking, as if it was a warning light.

"Well, look at that…" Howler said, looking at his ring.

"Why is it blinking?" Kion said, and Howler looked at him surprised.

"You can see it?" He asked, and Kion just nodded, not getting why he shouldn't be able to see it…

Howler seemed to ponder over it for few moments, but he seemed to shake it off, as he focused his attention back to the ring and started to explain. "It is doing this because it sensed a source of magic energy somewhere near. This might mean that our siren is somewhere near."

So, they started to follow the ring, and Kion noticed that it shone more and with more intensity as they went certain directions, and diminished as they got other directions. It was almost as playing Marco Polo, with the ring indicating if they were hotter or colder.

It took a few minutes, but eventually, they found the way, and it was following the river in the east direction. They walked a bit farther from the park, and as they did, Kion started to have some creeping feelings on his back, as if it were his instincts telling him that something bad was on its way to happen.

After a while, Kion started to hear a voice, very faint, that said, " _Come to me…_ " and that sounded awfully familiar…

"That voice from the mall!" Kion said, before quickly slapping his own hand over his muzzle. Howler looked at him, and he nodded.

They started walking again, and this time, they were going carefully, as if not to warn the siren for their presence. As they walked, they arrived into an old abandoned building that was just by the riverbed. They stayed in the corner, behind some overgrown bushes, looking at the building, which looked abandoned at quite some time.

All the while, Kion could still hear that voice, louder and louder.

" _Come to me, my dears. I am waiting for you. Come to me._ "

As they voice spoke, Kion noticed movement in the front of the building.

Anthros.

Males, all of them walking almost like somnambulists. Around twelve of them, of various species, and they all moving in direction to the building, the place where the voice was coming from.

"What are they doing here?" Kion asked in a whisper to Howler.

"The siren is luring them." Kion said, "The sirens are known for the power of their voices. They use it to lure their victims into their grasp."

"They can lure anyone?"

"Only males." Howler said, "And only the weak willed ones."

Kion watched as the males in there were taken in direction to the voice, as if lured by an invisible force. They entered the building, and as they entered, the voice seemed to become more delighted, as it said:

" _Yes, my darlings. Come to me. Let me take you to a wonderful place._ "

The way it talked was very gentle and charming. To Kion's ears, however, it sounded as sweet as poisoned honey. If he ever heard that voice calling for him, Kion was pretty sure that he would want to go into the opposite direction and stay as far from it as possible.

"Well, I guess this is where I enter." Howler said, as he came out of the bushes and started to walk stealthily in direction to the building. Kion took a moment to follow him, but follow him he did. Soon, they were both approaching the building, and they were near the entrance.

Howler stopped, and he focused on his ring. Soon, that familiar white glow enveloped him, and in a flash of light, he was dressed into that musketeer outfit. Kion, for some reason, was no longer startled by this, even though he gave a step back when the wolf suddenly transformed.

"Ready?" The wolf asked, and Kion had forgotten, just for a moment, that he was supposed to be companying the wolf into his hunting for the siren. The lion nodded, and he wielded the bat, as if he was ready to use it to defend himself.

Howler looked at him, and reached out to grab the bat. As he did, it was enveloped by a bright light, and after a second or two, it vanished.

The bat was made of plain wood, without any kind of decoration. However, as soon as the light ended, the bat itself looked very different. Now it seemed to be made out of a silvery metal, and it was decorated in the tip and the hilt with white oval gems. It also felt just as light as before, despite Kion feeling it in his hands as if it was the hardest metal.

"Wow…" Kion whispered, as he looked at the transmuted object, and he looked at Howler, who simply smiled at him.

"Magic." He said simply, and it was enough of an explanation. "It is not much, but I'm pretty sure that it will protect you from immediate danger." He said to the lion, putting a hand on his shoulder. "This might be the last chance to back away, if you want."

Kion looked at him, and he could see that the wolf really seemed to be worried about him.

Kion wondered if that meant that Kion should be worried too. But… for some reason, Kion didn't wanted to back away.

Kion was scared. Any reasonable person would be scared. Still, Kion felt some kind of excitement over it, almost as if it was the kind of excitement that you feel when you are about to do bungee jumping (well, Kion would not really know, for he never did it himself). It was the excitement of when you are on the edge of the abyss, and feel like jumping in there. Like you are about to throw all of your worries away, and simply deliver yourself to the moment, without worrying about what is on the other end.

Kion knew that it made no sense having this kind of feeling at that moment, but he had it. Along with another feeling that he was having about these poor guys who just got in there.

Someone needed to save them, right?

Kion looked back at Howler, and he simply said, "Let's do this!"

Howler only smiled, and he patted Kion's shoulder, and said, "So let's go." As he and Kion entered into the place, and a small part of Kion's mind was still asking him:

_"What the heck are you doing!?"_

 

 

 


End file.
